Force Found
by LittleAuby
Summary: Rey has lived quietly on Ahch-To with the Jedi Master, Luke Skywalker, for the past six years of her life. The quiet calm of her life is shattered with the arrival of a Resistance pilot bearing dark news. The First Order is taking over, and they need Luke to help stop it. When the Jedi refuses to leave, Rey decides she wants to go off-world and do what she can for the galaxy.
1. From The Sky

The whine of failing engines reached Rey's ears before her eyes could find the source. Raising her hazel gaze from the half scaled fish in front of her, she searched the sky. It didn't take long for her to lock on to the dark grey mass that broke through the even darker blanket of clouds, to come plummeting at the planet's surface."Master Luke!" she called to the Jedi master sitting near to her side, but he was already on his feet, one hand reaching out towards the ship.

Clambering up, she barely avoided knocking over the wooden table holding her now forgotten dinner, watching with wide eyes as the rapid descent began to slow.

Luke's eyes remained trained on the object of his focus, and it looked to Rey like his reaction of slowing the ship was more on instinct than anything else. It still met the surface with a loud crash, and, slinging the strap of her staff over one shoulder, Rey ran over the rugged ground, nimbly picking her way between craggy mounds, and vaulting over boulders in her haste. White-grey billows of smoke guided her to the crash site and she came to a skidding halt only a scant few feet from the vessel.

It was small, relatively speaking, with a long neck, on the end of which was the cockpit. The ship had landed propped crookedly against a rock, and she watched the hatch on top of the cockpit open with a loud groan. Smoke continued to twist from the engines and a cloud accompanied the pilot that came tumbling out in a fit of coughing to land practically at her feet.

The man took a moment to breathe in the clean island air before turning his face up to hers. Confusion flashed over his features briefly, and he glanced back at the ship in time to watch a round, orange and white shape vault itself out. It hit the stones with a loud bang that made Rey jump. Her mouth opened and closed as she tried to decide how to address the stranger, who had not yet tried to stand up.

He looked at her again and raised a hand to sweep dark curls back off his sweat slicked forehead and then smiled, an incredulous laugh finally breaking the silence. Something in the laugh made the corner of her mouth twitch up slightly.

"Something tells me this landing wasn't luck," he said. Rey opened her mouth to reply, but footfalls behind her drew her eyes instead, and she looked over her shoulder to find Luke had caught up with her and was eyeing their visitor with caution. Seeing his expression, Rey took her staff from her shoulder and held it in front of her, though she did not aim it at the man.

"Who are you?" Luke asked.

Instead of answering, the man looked Luke up and down, cautious recognition dawning in his eyes.

"I'm here looking for Jedi Master Luke Skywalker," he said. Luke shook his head ever so slightly.

"I didn't ask what you were here for. I asked who you are."

The pilot climbed to his feet as though the movement was painful, and swallowed hard, his eyes not leaving the older man.

"My name is Poe. Poe Dameron. I'm with the Resistance. General Leia Organa sent me in search of her brother, the Jedi Luke Skywalker."

Luke continued to show little concern for the man, and Rey slowly slid the strap of her staff back over her shoulder, eyes darting between the two of them. The little orange droid rolled up next to the pilot, Poe, and beeped hurriedly at him. Poe's eyes flickered down to the droid, a BB unit, Rey realized belatedly, and then came back up to Luke once more, looking him over carefully when Luke said nothing.

"You look like her," he ventured. Luke shook his head, but did not deny the insinuation that this 'General Leia Organa' was, in fact, his sister. Rey felt curiosity prickling at her. Luke didn't talk much about his past. In fact, she didn't know anything about his life before he had found her on Jakku six years prior.

"Glad you survived the crash, Poe. We'll leave you to your repairs. I trust you will be heading back to the Resistance as soon as they are done."

Luke's dismissal seemed to stun Poe and his mouth opened in shock.

"Rey," Luke called to her as he turned and headed back the way they had come. Hesitantly she moved to follow, but the pilot was faster, stepping around her to follow at Luke's heels.

"Master Skywalker," he said, and Rey looked down at the BB unit which swiveled to turn its optical orb up to her. With a heavy sigh she waved a hand at it.

"I'm Rey," she said. The droid whistled at her cheerfully.

"Pleasure to meet you, BB-8." Introductions over, the girl and the droid began to follow after the Jedi and the pilot, slowly moving around the rocks that Rey had previous vaulted over. Vaulting would have been much more difficult for BB-8, and Rey didn't want to simply abandon him.

As they came upon the place where Rey and Luke had been preparing their supper, she saw Luke standing over the tables, hands on hips and a somewhat sour expression on his face. Rey didn't need to see the fish to know that the porg on the island had likely gotten to them. If she had to eat grubs again for supper she was going to be cross.

"Are you listening to me?" Poe's voice had taken on an exasperated tone and he was trying to get himself in Luke's line of sight, but the older man simply kept looking away like the pilot wasn't there at all.

"The First Order is _winning_. The Republic is _gone._ We need you to come back. We need some kriffing help." He swept his hands out to the sides, gesturing at the rocks and huts around them. "You want me to believe something you are doing here is more important than that?"

Rey waited patiently. Experience had taught her that making these arguments against Luke was going to get the pilot nowhere, but she found she was very interested in what he said.

Vague memories came to her from her time on Jakku. Mentions of the First Order and of the Republic. Neither had had much to do with the daily life on that dry, desert wasteland of a planet, so Rey had never taken the time to learn about them. Ironic, since it was the battle between the predecessor of the First Order, the Galactic Empire, and the Republic that had graciously gifted her her AT-AT home, with it's defeat on Jakku years before her birth.

Beside her, BB-8 was rolling in nervous little circles, keeping its optics trained on its master as he pleaded his case. Finally, Luke trained eyes on Poe again. His back was to Rey, so she could not see his expression, but Poe was all adamant defiance. She admired him for his tenacity, at least.

"I am no help to the Resistance. I'm not leaving," he said. Poe opened his mouth to argue again, but Luke continued, "I know the Republic is gone. I felt it. But this is not a fight I can involve myself in. Now, I suggest you get back to your ship before it gets dark, and start your repairs."

Luke moved around Poe and, instead of returning to the task of salvaging dinner, he disappeared into one of the crude stone huts they called home, and shut the door behind him. Poe continued to stand where Luke had left him for several minutes, simply looking at the closed door. When it became apparent he wasn't going to move on his own, Rey came to stand beside him.

"You won't change his mind," she said. Poe turned to look at her, and she saw his eyes sweep over her frame, sizing her up. She knew she wasn't much to look at, brown hair, hazel eyes, and slender, unassuming frame. She tilted her chin up, daring him to say something.

"Leia didn't say there would be anyone else on the island."

She heard the confusion in his voice. Doubtless, this meeting was not going how he thought it would. Rey shrugged her shoulders and raised her eyebrows.

"Yeah, well, Luke never said he had a sister off the island," she replied. BB-8 rolled up on Poe's other side and whistled forlornly at him.

"No, we won't be leaving without Skywalker. I can't return to the General empty handed. We'll convince him." He looked once more at Rey, but this time he was not appraising her. "Any advice?" he asked.

Chewing the inside of her cheek, Rey shook her head and Poe nodded his as though he had figured as much.

"Well, he's right about one thing. I better start fixing that heap if we are gonna get out of here." His eyes went one more time to the door. "This isn't over, though."

Making sure that the determined pilot really was going to go back to his ship, Rey watched until he had passed out of view behind one of the mounds of rocks before she went to Luke's door, giving it a gentle tap with her staff.

"Master Luke?" She let the unasked question hang in the air, and had almost accepted that he would not answer for her either, when she heard the sound of movement within and the door slowly creaked back open, enough for him to look out at her.

"You have questions," he said. Rey nodded her head slowly. Of course she did. Luke sighed and pushed the door open further.

In the time he had been inside a fire had been started. While Rey sat down on a stone seat against one wall, Luke left long enough to gather the remains of their dinner. They finished scaling in silence, Rey mentally preparing questions, and Luke, doubtlessly, trying to figure out how to answer those questions.

As they watched the prepared fish, now set on spikes around the fire to cook, Rey cleared her throat, twisting the fabric of her tunic in one hand. It was surprisingly frightening to think she could ask the old Jedi questions and receive answers.

"Who are you?"

Luke smiled slightly at the question, his eyebrows rising and falling quickly.

"Luke Skywalker," he said. "You had heard of the Jedi before. When I found you, you said the Jedi were myths. Laughed when I told you my name and, as I recall, you told me Luke Skywalker was a myth too."

Rey smiled at the memory and nodded her head.

"You used the Force to toss some other scavengers off of me only a few minutes after." It had been the first time Rey had ever seen proof of the Force, which had, until then, only been stories told by the various spacers that passed through Niima Outpost. "Why did you offer to take me offworld?"

Rey had been on her own for a year before Luke had showed up in Niima Outpost. Her parents had died the year prior, but even before then she had known her share of loneliness. Her parents had been more interested in where their next drop of alcohol would be coming from, or the next hit of spice, than they had been in their daughter.

"My sister, Leia. I never knew her when she was that young, but I imagine she was like you. All stubborn independence. Actually, she was about the age you are now when I finally met her."

The affectionate statement brought an unexpected flutter of warmth to Rey's chest. It was unlike Luke to speak with such sentimentality. However...

"What about the First Order? And the Resistance? What does he mean the Republic is gone?"

As suddenly as it had appeared, the gentle expression on Luke's face closed off once more, and he leaned back in his chair with a heavy sigh.

"Don't worry about any of that. I'm not going anywhere."

The dismissal of the question had Rey sitting back as well, echoing his movements.

"It sounded important. Why can't you help him?" she asked. Luke wasn't looking at her anymore. He reached out and took one of the fish that had been cooking while they spoke.

" _My_ help wouldn't help anything. I didn't banish myself to this planet on a whim." As soon as he said it, Rey knew it was an unintentional slip. Information he had not meant for her to receive.

"You banished yourself? Why?"

Luke swallowed hard and set his fish down uneaten.

"Rey," there was tired resignation in his voice, "this is something you'll have to take on faith. My place is here. I won't be leaving the planet."

Rey realized she had told Poe he would never be able to drag the information out of Luke, so why was she in here now trying? Had she honestly thought it would be different for her, just because she had lived as his ward for the last six years? Bitterly, she realized that she had in fact hoped he would willingly answer her.

Chewing at the inside of her cheek to keep from speaking again, she leaned forward and picked up two of the three remaining skewered fish. It was silent when she stood up and left the hut.

Outside, the sky was a kaleidoscope of orange and red and pink clouds, stretching to the horizon to kiss the ocean, colored dark blue with spots of frothing white to mark the caps of waves. The sea here was always in turmoil, and, if holovids on board Luke's own downed ship hadn't told her otherwise, Rey would have assumed all oceans were like the ones on Ahch-To. But, the wind didn't smell like rain, so she began to pick her way back over the hills and rocks to the pilot and his ship.

Rey could hear the man before she could see him. Muttered curses drifted over the air to her and she found herself smiling a little at the grumblings. When she topped the hill where the ship sat, she saw Poe perched on the end near one of the engines, elbows deep in an open panel, brows furrowed. Lamps had been set up around the perimeter of the crash site to give him light as the sun set and night began to set in.

BB-8 detected her first, his head swiveling 180 degrees to watch her walk closer, chirping a greeting to her. Hearing his droid greeting the girl, Poe looked up from his work and went to wipe a hand over his forehead, smearing it with grease.

"Sod it," he muttered with one more glance at the innards of the ship, sliding down to land on the ground again.

"Stories say Luke Skywalker was quite the gearhead. If he wants me off his island so bad, maybe he should come and fix the ship himself." The remark was made offhand, an invitation for her to speak if she wanted, or to ignore if she didn't. Rey smiled a little more and shrugged her shoulders.

"I brought you a peace offering. You probably have rations, but-" She held out one of the skewered fish and earned a smile in return from Poe. He crossed the few feet to stand directly in front of her, taking the offering from her hand.

"If it isn't freeze-dried or dehydrated, I'll take it." Without skipping a beat, he brought the fish up and took a bite. Chewing thoughtfully, he looked surprised. "Not bad, actually."

He ate like a man who hadn't seen food in days. If he was as dedicated to his mission as he seemed, Rey wondered if perhaps eating had slipped his mind. He finished the rest of the fish before speaking again, using the time to discreetly watch her. Rey ate as well, though she was aching to ask him questions about why he had come to the island.

"BB-8 says your name is Rey? Sorry I didn't ask earlier. I was… distracted."

This was her opportunity to ask.

"Why exactly are you here? What were you saying about the Republic? Why do you need Master Luke?"

Poe's eyes widened at the slew of questions and he held up his hands to get her to slow down.

"Whoa, whoa. How long have you been on this planet, exactly?" He asked, one eyebrow raised. For a heartbeat, Rey felt inexplicably embarrassed about her lack of knowledge on the state of the galaxy beyond Ahch-To.

"Six years. Here. Before here I lived on Jakku."

The mention of the desert planet seemed to catch Poe's interest and he cocked his head to one side, stepping closer.

"Jakku. Did you now Lor San Tekka? We think he's who told Luke how to find this place."

Rey chewed on her bottom lip as she thought, trying to recall the name and coming up empty. Shaking her head she watched Poe nod, and take a step back again, giving her a little more space.

BB-8 managed something impossibly close to a sigh, and Rey smiled a little at him as he rolled forward and back, looking for all the world like a bored, impatient child.

"You know what the First Order is though, right?"

She nodded her head. "I've… heard of it," she said haltingly.

"They're the bastard child of the Galactic Empire." The sun had set, and despite the white glow of the lamps set around the camp, his expression still managed to darken. "And, they've been getting stronger. Recently, they," he paused as he thought over the recent deeds of the First Order. "They built a super weapon. Kept it a secret from the Republic and then destroyed them with it. The entire Hosnian system. Gone. Nobody is left to stand against them. Nobody but us." He trailed off as though the anger that was written across his face was making it difficult to speak.

"That's why you need Luke," Rey said. "To help defeat the First Order."

Poe nodded. "He fought against the Empire. The General is a brilliant leader, but she wants her brother back to help her. To give us some hope." He glanced back at his ship. "Even if I convince him, we won't be leaving in this if I can't patch it up."

Rey looked to the ship as well, mulling over what he had told her. It sounded like the galaxy needed Luke.

"Luke has a ship. Not a scouter like yours, but…"

Poe shook his head, interrupting the unspoken offer.

"This one's been modified. It's small and fast and our best bet of slipping past any First Order ships. They know we have the map and who we are looking for. There's nothing they would like more than to kill all of us, Skywalker most of all."

"Why do they want him dead? Because he helped destroy the Empire?"

Poe was still contemplative. "Because he's a symbol. Luke Skywalker grew up thinking he was nothing and wanting to be more. He saw darkness in the galaxy and wanted to stop it. A nobody that became a somebody. Luke Skywalker gives people hope."

Rey continued to eye the ship, finally placing the model, a A-24 Sleuth. It was an older style of ship, but with modifications…

"Well, I'm no Luke Skywalker, but I know my way around a hydrospanner. Maybe I can help?"

Poe glanced back at her from the ship and then down to BB-8

"It'd be pretty stupid of me to say no to help. Be my guest."

"Alright, BB-8. Thrusters on low. See if you can get her off the ground. Just off the ground, so we can set her down straight."

Rey was standing back a safe distance, watching the Sleuth. She could still hear Poe calling out orders from inside, with the top hatch left wide open. The suns had crested the horizon and her eyes were aching. They had worked through the night on the ship while Poe continued to tell her about the threat that was the First Order.

The more they spoke, the more certain she became that something would have to be done. Poe talked about the leaders of the First Order, agents of the Dark Side of the Force. A mysterious, ancient figure, the Supreme Leader, Snoke. And, his twisted apprentice, a monster called Kylo Ren, who had killed Han Solo, the Rebellion legend and Luke Skywalker's best friend. Rey had grown up hearing stories on Jakku about Han and his First Mate, Chewie, even more than she had heard tales of the Jedi.

If the Dark Side had risen to such heights, Luke had to step in. He was a Jedi. A warrior of the Light.

"Gently!" Poe's shout drew Rey's troubled thoughts back to the task at hand, of getting the ship back in working order.

The engines hissed and whined, and with a jerk, the Sleuth slipped off the sides of the massive boulders it had been propped against. It hovered in the air, and Rey waited for something to go wrong. Some sort of explosion that would send it crashing back to the ground, but nothing happened.

The ship hovered, smoothly and effortlessly, until Poe moved it, setting it down properly on landing gears a short distance away.

He was back at the hatch an instant later, a victorious grin spread over his face as he climbed out and slid down the access ladder to touch solid ground again.

"Well, I don't know about Luke, but you sure as hell didn't lie about knowing what you were doing." He came to a stop in front of her, still grinning, reaching out a hand.

Rey clapped her hand into his, returning the infectious smile at the small victory of repairing the ship. She gave his hand a firm shake, but the sounds of frantic beeping from BB-8, still inside the Sleuth, cut the moment of celebration short.

Poe's smile was all too brief as he let go of her hand and turned back to the newly fixed craft, returning to the cockpit once more. This time, Rey followed, climbing the extended ladder and perching on the hull of the ship. Poe had his headset on and was listening intently to the speaker on the other end.

"Damn," he grumbled, shaking his head. "I don't know if I can change his mind, General." He paused to listen again. "Alright. Understood."

Swiping the headset off, Poe turned to frantically scramble out again, almost knocking heads with Rey as she tried to move out of his way.

"The First Order is headed for D'Qar. I need to get back. It's now or never." Poe didn't bother with the ladder, jumping to the ground instead. Without breaking stride he headed for Luke's hut.

The door was still closed, but, as it was barely dawn, it was possible Luke was still asleep. Rey stood to one side as Poe knocked loudly on the door.

"Master Skywalker," he called several times before the door abruptly swung open. He stopped his next knock just shy of hitting the old Jedi by mistake.

Luke did not look receptive. His gaze was dark, and there were purple bags under his eyes that suggested he hadn't gotten any more sleep than they had.

"No," he said, cutting off anything Poe might have been preparing to say. The pilot gritted his teeth.

"Just kriffing listen to me. The Resistance, your sister, everyone, the whole galaxy; it's all in danger. We need you, and we need you _now_. The First Order knows where our base is. They are going to wipe us out." Poe's hands were clenched tightly at his sides, and he was leaning in towards the Jedi as he spoke, eyes blazing with fierce determination.

"I'm doing the galaxy more good by staying exactly where I am," Luke said evenly. Poe's fist came up and he brought it down on the wall of the hut.

"Aren't you listening to me? People are going to die!"

Luke didn't blink. "People are always dying. I won't meddle in the balance."

Poe took a step back, nearly shaking with the need to leave the planet and return to his friends, to save them from the First Order.

"I don't have time for this," he spat. Before he could move to leave, though, Rey stepped forward, putting herself at his side in front of Luke.

"I want to go with you," she announced. Both Jedi and pilot turned to look at her, wearing similar expressions of surprise, though Luke's quickly shifted to stern disapproval. Rey pressed on before he could say anything.

"I'm not Luke. I'm not a Jedi. I'm- I'm nobody. But I can't just stand by now. Not after what you told me. I want to help."

Luke took a step out of his hut, turning towards her, towering as best he could.

"You can't go," he said flatly. Rey arched an eyebrow and squared her shoulders, refusing to back down.

"I can. I have to. It was my choice to come with you here. And if you won't leave, I will."

"It's not safe," Luke said. Rey searched his face and wondered if the concern she saw glinting in his eyes was real or imagined.

"I can't stay safe here while the galaxy is overrun." Turning to Poe, Rey met his eyes, hoping she looked as sure as she felt.

"I won't say no to help, so long as you know what you're signing up for. You're handy with tools, but there's a lot more going on here than fixing ships." He looked over his shoulder towards the hill the Sleuth was settled on. "Whatever we do, we gotta do it fast. Grab anything you want to take with you."

Rey nodded her head sharply and headed for her own hut. There wasn't much to take, she realized, as she bundled clothes together in a rough, cloth sack. Her staff had been left back at the Sleuth, so she pulled the strap of her bag over her shoulder and returned to where Poe and Luke still stood, staring each other down.

"Rey," Luke turned to look at her as she drew near. "Don't do this."

Rey jutted her chin out, wearing the defiance she had built up like a protective cloak.

"If you go, I'll stay," she offered. Luke's mouth opened and then snapped shut again.

"We have to go," Poe said.

Rey nodded to him and then looked one more time at Luke, giving a small bow to the man who had watched over her for the past six years of her life.

"Thank you for everything, Master Skywalker." She kept her tone monotonous and formal, afraid that if she showed any sign of regret at leaving, he might try to convince her again to stay.

Then, putting Luke at her back, Rey followed Poe back to the ship.


	2. Caged

Even with their possessions stowed, the cockpit was tiny, and cramped. The ship, which could normally hold a pilot and a droid, or a pilot and a co pilot, had been modified to fit all three, at the expense of any degree of comfort.

"You sure you wanna do this?" Poe asked. Rey glanced up at the window of the closed hatch above them, seeing the blackness of space as the planet fell away beneath them. She was silent for a moment, thinking the question over carefully before answering.

"No turning back now," she said, feeling an unexpected twinge. Would Luke be alright without her? He had always been mostly solitary, but without her, all he had was the company of the Lanai caretakers.

"Alright," Poe said. "Time to make the jump. BB-8?"

The little droid beeping in confirmation and Poe pressed forward on the hyperdrive switch. The stars in front of them stretched into long lines, and Rey was momentarily pressed into her chair by the forward surge of the ship as it made the jump.

Rey spent much of their time in hyperspace dozing. The night of working on the Sleuth had left her exhausted.

"I'm not getting any responses from the base."

Poe's voice dragged Rey back from the edge of sleep, and she shook her head to clear away the mental cobwebs.

"Could they be being jammed?" she asked. In front of her, Poe shrugged his shoulders.

"I don't know. There's just… Nothing. We're gonna come out of hyperspace. Sensors aren't picking up any ships, so either we beat the First Order here, or we are late to the party."

He began to pull the lever back towards himself, and the stars slammed back into their solitary positions in the sky. In front of them was a massive planet in varying shades of green, with one notable exception.

Even from space, the black column of smoke rising from the planet's surface could not be missed.

"No," Poe whispered. It didn't take much to realize what had happened. They hadn't beaten the First Order. They were too late.

"That was the base?" Rey asked hesitantly. Poe nodded and continued to stare intently out the front viewport of the Sleuth.

"Where would they have gone after this?"

Poe swallowed hard and took a deep, steadying breath.

"There's a few places. Not enough debris around here for them to have gotten the whole fleet. At least some of them got out."

His fingers danced over the console in front of him. "We better get out of here. No telling wh-"

The ship gave a sickening lurch, and BB-8 started to trill frantically.

"What the-" Poe craned his neck for a better view outside, in time to see a massive object materialize from nothing. A cloaked Destroyer.

"We gotta get out of here, BB-8. Plan a jump! Anywhere but here, before-"

Once more he was cut off as the ship jerked sharply.

"No, no, no." Poe pushed a switch and pressed forward on the ship's controls, but they were moving backwards, towards the Destroyer.

"What's happening?" Rey asked, feeling surprisingly calm.

"They've got us in a tractor beam."

The finality of his tone was impossible to miss.

"They're not trying to kill us. Isn't that a good thing?"

Less than a day off of Ahch-To and Rey was being pulled into the hands of the enemy. Some help she was.

"Not exactly. This won't be the first time I've been a guest of the First Order. Their hospitality is lacking." Poe unstrapped himself from his chair and pressed up to the window. "That's the Finalizer."

The significance of the statement was lost on Rey. A shadow passed over the Sleuth as they were drawn under the hull of the Destroyer, and then blinding white light broke in on them as they entered into the docking bay.

"Alright, listen. Tell them you were just some new recruit. Don't say anything about Skywalker," Poe said hurriedly. Rey nodded her head. Of course she wasn't going to tell them anything about Luke.

The ship was settled on the floor and in seconds the sounds of booted feet on the roof of the cockpit rang in her ears. The access hatch gave an angry hiss of air as it was forced open.

"Don't move, rebel scum." The voice was garbled through the stormtrooper's voice modulator as he looked down on them, weapon in hand and at the ready. "Come out slowly with your hands on your head," he ordered.

"Hard to undo my harness with my hands on my head," Poe said.

"Now!" the stormtrooper barked back at him, and Poe reached down, obligingly releasing his safety restraint. Rey did likewise, following him out of the ship into the expansive hangar. TIE fighters lined the walls and there were Ground Walkers, pallets of munitions, and cargo transports.

Hands on her head, Rey slid off the side of the Sleuth, landing on her feet next to Poe. Immediately, troopers stepped forward, binder cuffs in hand. The restraints were clamped on them and Rey's eyes locked onto a nearby figure that watched the proceedings.

The man stood, ramrod straight and hands clasped behind his back. Red hair severely slicked back and black uniform impossibly neat and smooth. Only when the pair were restrained and pushed to their knees did he approach.

"Seems we were correct in thinking there would be stragglers." His tone was thick with superiority, dripping condescension. Then, his eyes focused more fully on Poe and he barked out a short laugh.

"I know you. The Resistance pilot." He chuckled again. "So recently escaped from us, now returned. A trick you won't succeed at again." Shifting from Poe, he looked down at Rey. She kept her face neutral.

"And what role do you play for that doomed group of nuisances?" he demanded. Rey swallowed, trying to decide how to answer.

"I'm nobody," she finally said. The man smiled slowly, an unpleasant expression that spread across his face like oil on water.

"You are that," he said. "I am General Hux of the First Order. And you, the both of you, are to be questioned on your involvement in the Resistance and on their possible safe havens." He gestured at them with one hand. "Have them placed in interrogation cells and summon Ren. I want him to deal with this. Last time the pilot was with us he was the only one to get results."

Tightly gripped by the arm, Rey was hauled back to her feet and jostled out of the hangar towards the depths of the Finalizer. She could hear Poe chattering nonchalantly to his own escort as they were led through the halls to the detention level.

They passed a central chamber where two security officers sat at a round computer console set into the floor, and down a seperate hall of metal doors. Inside one, she was led to an inclined platform with heavy, metal restraints. On the walls of the room were shelves of instruments, no doubt for the use of dragging information out of unwilling captives.

The binder cuffs were removed and she was pressed onto the table and restrained anew. Was Poe getting similar treatment? Somehow she suspected his would be worse, since he had the reputation of an escapee. Not to mention his apparent habit of goading on his enemies.

Rey was left alone in her cell, lit by a single panel of lights directly above the interrogation platform. There was no way of telling how much time passed, but a sense of dread continued to grow on her when she thought over what Hux had told the stormtroopers. He wanted 'Ren' to deal with them. Was it Kylo Ren? The apprentice of the Supreme Leader of the First Order himself?

Fighting to steady her nerves, Rey tried to breathe calmly, closing her eyes to center herself. On the island it had been something Luke had taught her.

"You don't have to be a Jedi to practice meditation," he had said.

As she recalled what he had taught her, Rey's heart finally began to slow. Whatever happened, she would meet it with quiet calm.

The door to the room hissed open, and the light inside seemed dim compared to the illumination of the hallway. Rey squinted, trying to see the figure that entered with heavy, booted footfalls.

The door shut behind him, sealing them together in the room. In the sudden lack of light it was almost harder to pick out details. The figure was dressed all in black from head to toe, his face hidden behind a mask of black and chrome metal. He stood slightly hunched over, as though it was difficult to support his towering frame. On his belt, Rey saw what she knew to be the hilt of a lightsaber.

He didn't immediately speak. Instead, Kylo Ren, for it must have been he, circled the platform. Even with the mask to hide his face, Rey could feel eyes boring into her, assessing her.

Finally, the dark form came to stand in front of her, cocking his head to one side, and she heard him sigh through the voice modulator.

"A girl," he said, and the condescension in his voice rivaled that of General Hux. "Hux didn't trust his men to be capable of extracting information from a girl."

She wanted to stay silent, told herself she would be quiet, though something in her eyes apparently warranted additional comment from him.

"I didn't realize he would so openly insult me."

Through the mask, Kylo Ren's voice was calm. After what Poe had told her she had expected a creature seething with palpable anger. A being that would wear rage like a cloak. The thing in front of her was eerily placid.

"Where's my friend?" Rey demanded when the following silence stretched too long. Kylo Ren continued to stand, impassive.

"Ah, the pilot. I gathered from him you had only just met recently. But you're friends?"

The revelation that Poe had already been questioned made something twist painfully in Rey's gut. She clenched her hands.

"Where is he?" she reiterated.

"He's resting. It's not the first time I've had cause to question him. He held out longer this time. I think the effort was taxing."

As he spoke, something touched the fringes of Rey's mind. A gentle brush that she instinctively recoiled from.

"Monster," she hissed, trying to distract from the sensation. "Leave him alone, or-"

Kylo Ren straightened to his full height and her sentence cut off in a small gasp as she waited for some sort of physical rebuke. He walked forward, slowly, taking his time, moving in close until she found herself straining back against the table with nowhere to escape to.

"Or what?" he asked, and it sounded almost like there was veiled amusement in his voice.

When Rey did not offer another threat, he tilted his head to the side again.

"A monster," Kylo Ren said thoughtfully. Rey continued to do the only thing she could do; she stared at him, as unblinking as possible.

His hand came up and she closed her eyes, expecting him to strike her. Instead, she felt the gentle pressure of fingertips on her cheek. She tried to recoil again into the unyielding platform.

Once more, she felt the sensation of something brushing up against her mind.

"Is it worth it for me to question you?" the masked creature asked.

Rey gritted her teeth. "No."

With an accepting nod, Kylo Ren seemed to focus. Something shifted in the room, and this time, the mental probe did not vanish, but pressed deeper, beyond any defense she thought she had.

And it _hurt._ Rey's teeth ground together as she fought the invasion. Kylo Ren was unmoving.

"It goes easier if you cooperate," he said. Then, "From Jakku. A little scavenger mouse. A child. You have not lived there in some time."

Rey felt a surge of panic. She couldn't let him find out about Luke.

"An island," he continued to narrate his findings smugly. "You lived on an island. So lonely. Not alone, but lonely nonetheless." His voice had grew ever so slightly softer as he went along, and he leaned in closer, head bowed in concentration. "And," he paused. "Han Solo. You're thinking about Han Solo? The pilot told you about that, did he? The name was important to you, from your time on Jakku."

Rey could feel his hand start to tremble against her skin. Tears leaked from her eyes as she continued to fight him, to push him out, push him back.

Pain that was not hers lanced through Rey's chest, and her eyes flew wide open. The name 'Han Solo' was agony, tearing at her. Uncertainty. Fear. Weakness. Terrible, terrible weakness where there should have been new strength. And...

"He was your father," she murmured, fighting back the crushing fear, unsure of how she suddenly knew this with such certainty. "You killed your fath-" Her voice broke off as Kylo Ren jerked away from her with a hiss, visibly shaking.

"You killed your father for power?" Rey's voice was stronger now, with her mind to herself again, and she shook her head. For a moment the only sound in the room was their breathing. Hers, heavy from the exertion of the mental battle, and his shallow, haunted, shuddering breaths.

"I did," he said, searching her face. "You want to kill me. Avenge a fallen hero, a man you never even met. Strike a blow in favor of the Resistance?" He continued to stare at her through the mask, waiting for an answer Rey would not offer him. When she remained silent, Kylo Ren reached up to grab at his mask, pressing at some release she could not see. With a hiss it was pulled away, revealing his face.

It was not a monster that stared back at her, but a man. He bore a narrow, regal face, framed in waves of thick, black hair. His mouth was set in a stern line, and his eyes were intense brown orbs that flickered with a burning flame of conflicting emotions. It was no wonder he wore a mask, if his eyes spoke so loudly.

Parting his lips, Kylo Ren drew in a deep, steadying breath, not unlike the meditative breathing Rey had done earlier.

"I won't be called a monster by an ignorant junk trader," he said. Coming forward with purpose, determination written on his features, he put his face inches from hers, staring her down.

"Enough of this. You'll tell me who you are and where you come from. You're hiding something, or you wouldn't fight so desperately."

His hand came up again to rest against her face as he pressed in, pulling at her mental walls, searching.

"What's…" he trailed off, looking suddenly perplexed. "What is this?" he asked. "A cage. What have you locked away?"

As he continued trying to find the information he sought, an ache started behind Rey's eyes. This was not the pain of resistance. This was something she didn't understand.

"The Force," he whispered. "In you?" Kylo Ren's eyebrows drew down and his eyes rose to meet hers. The words made something shatter, and Rey felt a rush of energy surge through her.

Her eyes closed and her mouth opened to cry out. Kylo Ren's hand left her face as he was flung into the far wall. Instruments fell from shelves, the light above her flared and nearly vanished, and the restraint table shorted out, the bindings on her wrists and ankles fell away.

The silence that followed was deafening. Rey panted and nearly collapsed. She brought a hand up to her forehead, though it did not ease the pain throbbing in her head.

"What…"

She stopped when she spotted the form laying half propped against the wall by the door to the cell.

Kylo Ren had been knocked cold by the blast of energy. Even without being able to see the rise and fall of his chest, somehow, Rey knew he was alive.

Cautiously, she climbed down from the slanted table and approached the still form, feeling anger building in her at this taker of lives. Kin-killer, hope crusher, murderer, monster. Her eyes found the lightsaber, still belted at his hip. A weapon. Rey could make sure he never woke up again.

Kneeling down at his side, she reached out, keeping her eyes locked onto his face, watching for signs that he might wake up.

A phantom flicker of pain brushed against her heart. This wasn't her pain. It was his. A remnant of the agony she had witnessed when she had entered his mind. "The Force," he had said. In her? She stopped, hand shaking. Luke had never hinted to her that she might have any kind of connection to the Force. And, Kylo Ren had said it was caged. His attacks on her mental barriers must have broken that cage, but how had it gotten there in the first place?

Shaking away the troubling thoughts, Rey reminded herself that she had much more immediate concerns. Her fingers brushed the saber hilt and she pulled it from the clip on his belt. It was heavy, and much too big for her, but it would have to do.

Thumb on the ignition, Rey looked down at his face and paused. He had not denied any accusations he had found in her. He was a monster, so why did she hesitate?

The door next to her hissed open, and she jumped, eyes flying up to land on the masked face of a stormtrooper.

"Drop the weapon. Hands on your head," he barked.

Rey stayed frozen where she was, searching her mind desperately for something to do, anything that could get her out of this.

 _The Force?_

Kylo Ren's confused voice echoed in her thoughts. If she could use it to see his thoughts, then…

"There has been an incident. You will escort me to the cell of the Resistance pilot," she said as calmly as possible.

When Rey had been small, she had heard stories of Jedi who could make people do what they wanted by using the Force and suggestion. She had always wished she could do that. She would have made Plutt give her all the rations she wanted.

But, now…

The trooper stood still, as though dazed, neither moving to attack, nor to comply.

"Take me to the Resistance pilot," she said again, trying to put force behind the calm order.

The stormtrooper lowered his weapon and nodded once.

"I will take you to the Resistance pilot," he replied, his voice eerily dead of emotion.

With once more glance at Kylo Ren, Rey climbed to her feet, still holding the lightsaber. There was no time, she told herself. No time to deal with him now. Instead, she left the cell and closed the door behind her, leaving him sealed inside.


	3. Suppressing Fire

Rey followed the trooper the short distance to Poe's cell with quick, determined strides. The hall appeared to be untouched by whatever had happened in the interrogation room, and for that she was grateful, though clearly it had been enough to draw the attention of at least this trooper. She kept her eyes trained on his back as they walked, waiting for him to turn around and fire on her.

Instead, the trooper approached another door and used a security key on the access pad. The door hissed open. Rey went to enter, stopping short and turning to take the keycard from the trooper. He didn't protest.

"Poe," she whispered, creeping in quietly.

Poe's eyes were closed, and he was secured to an interrogation table, the same as she had been. Unlike her, he appeared to have received rough treatment. His hair was damp with sweat and there was a bruise on one cheek. When she drew close enough, Rey saw a bit of blood dried at the corner of his mouth.

At the sound of her voice, his eyelids fluttered, brows drawing down in confusion.

"Poe," she said a little louder. She wanted to free him from the table, but if she did and he couldn't support himself, he would fall to the floor and she wouldn't be able to catch him.

Slowly, Poe cracked his eyes open. For a moment they were unfocused before finding her.

"Rey? What's-" He saw the stormtrooper behind her and swallowed hard, nodding his head ever so slightly as though to warn her of the danger. Rey didn't bother looking.

"Don't worry about him. Are you alright? Can you stand?" she asked urgently. Poe took a moment to take stock of himself before giving her a quick nod.

"Yeah. What's going on?"

Rey circled to the back of the table to find the release switch, flipping it and hearing the restraints click open. Poe stumbled down from the table gracelessly.

"I- I don't know. But we need to go. Any ideas? You've been here before, right?" she asked.

Poe was nodding his head, looking somewhat dumbstruck as he tried to gather his wits about him again.

"Last time I was here a stormtrooper walked me right out through the hangar. Something tells me it wouldn't go so smoothly a second time."

Rey swallowed and shrugged her shoulders, waiting for Poe to make some sort of suggestion. He bit the inside of his cheek.

"We need to find-"

"BB-8," Rey cut him off, remembering their droid companion, and looking at the ground as she thought. Turning around, she faced the dazed trooper, walking to stand toe to toe with him.

"Where would a confiscated enemy droid be kept?" she asked. The trooper didn't answer. He didn't move at all.

Rey cursed. They didn't have time for this. Any moment Kylo Ren would wake. She knew the interrogation room would not hold him for long, and once he found her gone-

"What the-?"

The new voice caught Rey off guard and she saw a second trooper come into view just outside the room. He started to raise his blaster rifle, and Rey dodged back inside, grabbing at the rifle of the dazed trooper as she went. It caught on a piece of armor plate and fell, clattering to the floor. As she went to reach for it, a volley of blaster fire tore into the room, sending her scrambling for cover.

Rey was breathing heavily, and looked down to her belt where she had tucked Kylo Ren's lightsaber. It was better than nothing, right?

Pulling it free, Rey thumbed the ignition switch, and almost shrieked when it flared to life. The beam crackled and snapped erratically, the crossguard vents uncomfortably close to her skin. Poe was watching with wide eyes.

"You know how to use that thing?" he nearly shouted at her over the continued sounds of suppressing blaster fire.

"Don't touch the glowing part, and swing it at the bad guys," she called back. There was a break between bursts of fire, and she spun back around the corner. The trooper she had stunned had recovered his senses and retrieved his blaster from the floor, but the last thing he could have been expecting was for her to charge around the corner with a lightsaber in hand.

There wasn't time to think, she surged forward, catching the trooper with the blade and going clean through him. She stood, stunned at what she had just done, looking at the blade that vanished into his chest. He dropped his rifle again, this time permanently, and the second trooper fired on her, hitting the impaled one in the back.

The dead guard began to collapse, and Rey stumbled back into the room again, managing to kick the dropped blaster in with her.

Poe was watching with wide eyes, but he bent to retrieve the blaster rifle as it skidded across the floor to him. Rey took a moment to look down. There was no blood. The lightsaber had cauterized the wound even as it had burned away at the man's organs.

Poe swung around the corner and fired rapidly. Rey heard a cry, garbled through a voice modulator, and the heavy thud of a second body falling.

"Someone's going to know what just happened," Poe said, not looking at Rey as she joined him in the hall. He reached down and picked up the second trooper's rifle and handed it to her.

Deactivating the saber and tucking it back into her belt, Rey took up the rifle, looking it over with uncertain eyes, trying not to see the bodies on the floor.

"Safety off, point, and shoot. No time for a better lesson right now." Glancing down both ends of the hall, he nodded in the direction of the central room where the computer console had been. "Come on," Poe said, and began to run down the corridor.

Before they had gone more than a few steps, more troopers rounded the corner, weapons already drawn to find the source of the blaster shots. Rey and Poe both opened fire, watching the troopers drop.

Reaching the end of the hall, the pair swung around the corner, putting themselves in sight of the console. Two more troopers were in the central room, in addition to the two security officers.

These troopers were more prepared than the others had been, and they fired on sight. Rey cried out and fell back around the corner, Poe nearly tripping over her to do the same.

"Damn," he growled, rolling his shoulders, pressing himself to the wall.

"We need to keep going. They are going to have called for reinforcements," Rey said, panting slightly. Poe gritted his teeth and fired blindly around the corner.

"They have us pinned down."

He sounded worried and Rey thought frantically about what to do. They needed a distraction. Something to pull the attention off them, even for just a moment.

Biting her lip, Rey reached down and took the saber from her belt again. Poe glanced at her.

"What do you plan on doing with that? You won't get close enough to use it."

Rey ignored the comment, igniting the blade anyways.

"Get ready to shoot," she said. Poe opened his mouth to ask her again what she planned to do, but Rey was already moving.

Swinging around the corner, she threw the saber as hard as she could. It flew across the room like it had a mind of its own, crashing into a part of the computer and sending up a shower of sparks.

Poe, following her lead, turning his weapon on the stunned collection of enemies, while Rey took up her rifle to do the same. The two troopers went down, and there was a moment of silence, punctuated only by the sounds of the sparking console.

"Don't move," Poe warned, coming forward with weapon aimed at the remaining officers. "Where's my droid?"

Neither of them answered and Rey took a moment to search their faces. One was definitely more nervous than the other. When no answer was forthcoming, Poe raised the blaster rifle and fired a shot down into the computer bay, hitting the less nervous one in the leg. He went to the floor, howling in pain.

"Where is-"

"It's in evidence storage, waiting to be processed," the nervous officer yelped.

"Where?" Poe repeated.

"It's-" The man started to gesture towards another hallway, but Poe shook his head sharply, the gesture effectively cutting the officer off.

"No. You're gonna show us. Put some binders on your buddy there so he can't call for more help, and then bring us to my droid."

The man nodded his head nervously and bent down to take some cuffs off his coworker's belt. Instead of cuffs, he quickly raised a hidden pistol. Poe was faster, firing a shot off while the officer's own bolt flew wide. The officer slumped to the floor, a hole burning in his chest.

"Alright then," Poe said, looking at the guard he had shot in the leg. "You're gonna take us to my droid."

The guard grimaced.

"I'm not taking you anywhere," he said.

Poe shrugged. "Then I guess this conversation's over."

He brought up the rifle and took aim, but the man's hands came up, gesturing for the weapon to be lowered.

"Wait! Wait, no. I can do it. I'll do it." There was panic in his voice and he reached up to grip the edge of the computer and haul himself to his feet. "It's this way, but I need someone to help me walk."

Poe scoffed while Rey continued to cast nervous glances back down the hall to her cell. Dread continued to rise in her. They were nearly out of time. The dark robed figure of Kylo Ren would wake soon. If he caught them again… She doubted a bruised cheek would be all Poe needed to worry about. And as for herself, well, she couldn't imagine what would be done with her now that he had found she was connected to the Force.

"Nobody is going to help you walk. Use the wall," Poe said. The man he had shot snorted, but a glance at his dead companion had him limping up the stairs to join them on the main floor of the room. Once he was up, Rey hurried down into the computer bay, finding the lightsaber, which had deactivated after melting through part of the counter. She returned the item to her belt and rejoined Poe.

The door marked "Evidence Storage", was the second down the hallway opposite the one to their cells. The officer leaned heavily on the wall and gestured to the wide, metal doors.

Snatching a security key from the guard, Poe opened the door and ducked inside. Rey kept her rifle trained on the wounded man. He glowered at her in return.

"BB-8?" She heard Poe calling out in the room. "Hey, Buddy! Come on, we're getting out of here."

The man and the droid hurried back out into the hall and Rey could hear the sounds of nearby booted feet marching. BB-8 chirped urgently, rolling in agitated, little circles.

"You know the way to the hangar?" Rey asked in surprise. The droid beeped in confirmation.

"Right," Poe said as he shoved the wounded guard into the storage room and let the door hiss shut. Rey fired a shot at the panel next to the door to keep it locked.

"Get us out of here, Buddy."

BB-8 was faster than she expected, and Rey was running to keep up with him and Poe. The droid found tiny hallways and turbolifts to keep them from the troopers that were storming the detention level.

As they went, Rey felt pain starting up behind her eyes again, and a new pain on the back of her head like a bruise. Fear dragged cold fingers down her spine. _He_ was looking for them. Somehow she knew he was.

The trio came out of a doorway and Rey blinked. It led out to a walkway, and a catwalk over the hangar. Edging out slowly, they looked down, trying to see if the Sleuth was still there.

"I see it," Rey whispered, pointing. It hadn't been moved, instead sitting where it had been deposited by the tractor beam. "Will we be able to get out in it?"

Poe was regarding the rest of the hangar grimly. Clearly their escape was expected. Squads of stormtroopers were stationed about, especially near the Sleuth, facing the various entrances on the main level.

"Not in the ship we came in," Poe said, and Rey looked up at him questioningly.

"The tractor beam is probably still locked on to it. No way do we get close enough to those generators to turn it off. No. We gotta use something else." He pointed to one of the cargo transports. "One of those should work. Not as heavily guarded either. We just need to get to it."

Rey continued to look around the hangar, her free hand resting over the saber on her belt as she searched for a particular figure in black. Instead, she saw a possible answer to their problems.

"There." She pointed to the ground walkers and turned to face Poe, seeing him looking at her dubiously.

"What about them?" he asked. BB-8 whistled low and Rey nodded, pointing at him.

"Yeah. I think I can pilot it, at least enough to use the weapons system. Give you guys some cover to get to a transport."

A mischievous smile slowly spread over Poe's tired face and he chuckled.

"Well, I'll be damned," he said. Rey smiled back.

"Give me time to get down there and make sure you are ready to move." Rey gave one more look over the edge of the catwalk and then made her way to the other end of it. She remembered similar places in the old Destroyers she had salvaged from on Jakku. True to her suspicions, there was a ladder set into the wall at the other end of the walkway, leading to the floor.

Looking down, Rey saw it came down behind some pallets of munitions. Not a very commonly used access point, clearly.

Checking to make sure the saber was still secure, Rey slung the rifle strap over her shoulder and eased down onto the ladder. It was a long way down, and despite herself, fear made her muscles shake. Climbing like this had once been her life, but it had been a long time. All it would take would be one pair of eyes looking in the right direction. One well placed blaster bolt, and if the shot itself didn't kill her, the fall certainly would.

"I can do this," she whispered. "I can do this."

It felt like the climb was taking hours, and she waited the entire time for a new cry of alarm to go up and the sound of discharging blasters.

When her feet found solid ground, Rey let out a gasp of relief before clapping a hand over her mouth to stifle herself. The tense air of the hangar was almost tangible. Creeping around a pallet, Rey observed the gathered troops once more. The walkers weren't far, positioned against the wall. All she had to do was stay behind the pallets.

She was about to continue her mission when she saw the form she had been most worried about. He was far enough away that most detail was lost on her, but she knew from the glint of black and chrome that Kylo Ren had donned his mask again.

Rey bit her lip and turned away. It was now or never. She crept as quietly as she could along the wall, wondering where Poe and BB-8 were. What other route might BB-8 have for them to get into the hangar? They couldn't climb down the ladder like she had. Well, Poe could. But not without leaving behind the little droid, and Rey knew that would never happen.

She reached the first in the line of AT-ST walkers and looked up at it. It was much taller up close, but if she could manage the access ladder from the catwalk, she could manage this too.

Using a ladder on the leg of the walker, Rey climbed up and slipped as quietly as possible through the top hatch, settling into the operator's seat and looking over the controls.

Directly ahead of her were some of the troops. She didn't need to get all of them. She just needed to keep their attention and make them fall back.

Rey hit switches to power up the walker. Immediately, heads turned at the sound of it, and she took up the weapons controls and fired.

Chaos erupted in the hangar as troopers scrambled for cover, their ranks broken by the unexpected opponent. Rey watched the crowds as they tried to regroup, searching for the Force wielder. She didn't see him. Either he had left before she had started firing or he had already found shelter. Rey needed to keep up the cover long enough for Poe and BB-8 to get to a transport.

The walker gave a sudden shudder, and lurched heavily. Rey braced her hands against the console, eyes wide.

"What?" she gasped. The walker jerked again, and this time it was tipping over. It crashed to the ground and Rey landed hard her side against what had once been the wall. Pain blossomed along her ribs and up one arm.

Twisting around, she brought up her rifle and pointed it at the access hatch, waiting. It opened with a squeal, but nobody moved into view.

"Stand down," Kylo Ren said. Was he speaking to her? Rey's finger hovered over the trigger, waiting.

"Come out."

Rey felt something tugging at her, but she shook it off and fired a shot outside the walker. The pull stopped, and after a moment Kylo Ren crouched down in front of the open hatch.

Rey started to pull the trigger, but his hand shot out and she froze. Nothing physical restrained her, but her limbs wouldn't listen to her commands.

He stayed where he was, looking in at her for a few breaths.

"I'm impressed," he said. "Especially since you don't even know what you are doing. Do you?"

Rey didn't answer, though she suspected he would have allowed her movement enough to speak.

"Sir," a stormtrooper somewhere off to the side spoke. "Do you want us to bring her out?"

Kylo Ren shook his head and reached out his other hand. The rifle was wrenched out of Rey's hands, sailing through the air to his. He tossed it aside casually. Then, he repeated the action with the lightsaber, pulling it free of her belt without having to physically touch it, calling it into his own hand and properly belting it.

"Where's the pilot?" he asked, still not entering the walker.

"We were separated. I don't know where he is."

It was the truth, though not the whole truth. She didn't know where Poe and BB-8 were, but she knew where they were going. The tilt of Kylo Ren's head suggested he didn't believe her.

Before he could make up his mind on what to do with her, a new commotion was raised. A laser cannon blast slammed into the ground not far away.

Kylo Ren surged to his feet, his attention falling away from Rey. Her body was responding to her again, and she scrambled for the opening as the black robed figure vanished from view. Something big exploded nearby, making the floor tremble.

As she stood, she saw a cargo transport hovering nearby, cannons at the ready and firing, giving her cover. The Sleuth was a pile of flaming, twisted wreckage. Rey ran for the transport, jumping onto the extended boarding ramp and hauling herself inside. They needed to go, and they needed to go now.

"Poe!" she shouted, not knowing if he would be able to hear her in the cockpit. The ramp behind her closed quickly and the transport turned, facing the opening of the hangar bay.

As she was starting to climb to her feet the ship heaved forward, sending her flying back to hit one of the walls. Sliding to the ground, Rey wrapped her hands into some hanging, mesh netting and held on tightly. She knew that feeling. They had made a hyperspace jump.

Minutes ticked by as Rey lay on the floor, waiting to make sure there would be no more surprises.

"Rey?" Poe's voice crackled to her from an intercom. "You okay back there?"

The sound of his voice brought the reality of their situation forward. They had done it. They had escaped the First Order Star Destroyer.

Rey let go of the mesh, simply laying on the floor, and began to laugh.

"Yeah," she called between giggles. "I'm fine."


	4. Names

Kylo watched as fire suppression units worked to extinguish the still smouldering wreckage of the A-24 Sleuth. They wouldn't know for sure until it had been looked over, but he suspected there wouldn't be much, if anything, to salvage from the ships logs, or navi-computer.

In one hand, he still clutched his lightsaber. He had not returned it to his belt after retrieving it from the girl. Emotions continued to war within, as he tried to decide which one was most worth his time.

Intrigue and anger were fighting to be at the forefront of his mind.

The destruction of the hangar was extensive. The pilot had made the jump to lightspeed while still inside, sending wreckage and ships flying. Crews were busy cleaning up the mess, but even once the physical evidence was gone, the blow to the pride of the First Order would be widespread and deep.

At least this time it had not been one of their own to turn traitor and aid in the escape. That was where the positives ended, however.

No, instead of a highly skilled and well trained stormtrooper, it had been been some scavenger girl. There was a lump on the back of Kylo's head from where it had connected with the wall after being blasted back by a powerful surge of raw Force energy.

Like the damage to the hangar, the wound went far beyond his physical injury. His pride smarted.

"Sir."

Kylo had heard the officer approaching him, but had not turned to face him, waiting for him to speak instead.

"What is it?" His voice was terse, setting the man even more on edge. The officer licked his lips nervously, looking like he would have rather been anywhere but there.

"General Hux has contacted Supreme Leader Snoke, to tell him of the situation. The Supreme Leader has summoned you."

Kylo's hand tightened on his saber. Of course Hux had gone scurrying off to Snoke. He would do his absolute best to pin as much of the blame as possible on Kylo.

"Dismissed," he said, twisting the saber around in his hands and wishing he had the time to use it on something, anything, before appearing before the Supreme Leader. But, he could not keep his master waiting.

With assured steps that hid his inner turmoil, Kylo went to the audience chamber where Snoke addressed his underlings.

The projection of their leader was many times his true size, the blue glow of it the only illumination in the vast room.

If Hux and Snoke had been speaking before he entered, they had stopped at his approach. His footsteps were the only sound as he walked the length of the chamber to stand shoulder to shoulder with the weaselly general.

Instead of immediately addressing his apprentice, Snoke looked back at Hux.

"Go. Clean up this mess," he ordered. His voice was as frigid as his stare, and it was impossible to miss the frustration in the order.

"Yes, Supreme Leader." Hux was visibly nervous in the face of Snoke's anger, but still managed to turn and shoot Kylo a hateful glare, before marching out.

The door to the audience chamber hissed shut, leaving him alone with his master.

"What happened?" Snoke demanded.

To his credit, Kylo did not flinch or cower in the face of that anger. He had faced it many times before in the years since he had left his uncle's academy. Cowering would not help him here.

"It was the girl," he said, voice perfectly calm. He trusted that Hux's report had filled Snoke in on their lost captives, so he would not have to elaborate further on what 'girl' he was talking about.

Snoke was sitting back on his holoprojected throne, arms flat against the arm rest. This lack of animated movement let Kylo know exactly how livid his master was.

"And how did a girl manage to escape from her cell, with you in the room, destroy half of the hangar, steal one of our transports, and escape with the Resistance pilot? A man who has now slipped through your fingers twice."

Kylo felt every accusation and detail thrown at him like a physical projectile.

"The girl was strong with the Force." Here he paused, sorting through the encounter again in his head. "Someone had cut her off from it. Caged it away in her. As I was interrogating her, I broke that barrier."

Snoke had leaned forward as his apprentice spoke, his features shifting ever so slightly from anger to curiosity.

Emboldened by this change in the Supreme Leader's disposition, Kylo continued with more surety.

"The sudden reconnection resulted in a Force blast that threw me back into a wall and incapacitated me. I have little doubt that this renewed connection to the Force also aided her in her escape."

Snoke, who had been leaning forward throughout the explanation, now sat back again, raising a hand contemplatively to his chin. There was still anger in the slope of his brow, but the frightening lividity had ebbed away.

"Cut off from the Force," he mused.

Kylo waited for Snoke to finish whatever internal debate he was having, knowing it would do no good to speak again beforehand.

"If this is true, the girl could be used as a tool of the Resistance, unhoned as she might be." He drummed his fingers on the arm of his throne, quiet and calculating in the face of this new potential threat.

"She must not be allowed to truly harness her abilities. If the Resistance has met with Skywalker they could deliver her to him and she would be made a pawn of the light." He pointed sharply at Kylo.

"Assist Hux in finding the next Resistance hovel. Destroy them, but bring the girl to me."

Kylo felt an unexpected shiver run down his spine, though he couldn't place the reason for it.

"Understood, Supreme Leader."

Snoke's hologram crackled and then vanished, leaving him alone in the darkness of the audience chamber, with only his failures to keep him company.

Skywalker had been his mission for so long. Finding all traces of the Jedi and erasing their backwards order from the memory of the galaxy. That Snoke would suggest he change that focus was unexpected.

It would do him no good to remain in the empty room, so Kylo turned and marched out, only to find Hux waiting for him in the hallway.

Anger twisted in his gut at the sight of the man, and he straightened so as to look down at him.

"Well?" Hux asked.

Kylo wanted to tell him it was none of his business. That if Snoke had wanted Hux to hear any of it, he would have told him to stay.

"The Supreme Leader has asked me to assist in locating the Resistance," he said, leaving out the part about recapturing the girl. He didn't want to explain to Hux yet what her significance was. Though, he would have to eventually if he didn't want her to be simply destroyed with the rest of the Resistance once they found them.

This was not a matter for the general to concern himself with. It was a Force matter.

Hux's expression soured at the news, but he quickly gathered himself, wiping the emotion from his face, all cold calculation again.

"As the Supreme Leader wishes," he said.

Kylo was thankful for his mask. With it on, he didn't have to hide the disgust on his own face as he watched Hux stride away.

Now what was there to do? Technicians were already working on tracking the stolen ship. With any luck, it would lead them right to the Resistance fleet.

 _Ben._

A voice whispered on the edges of his mind, making him shiver. It was impossible that he should hear that voice, and yet it had been there since Starkiller Base had been destroyed. Han Solo had had no connection to the Force. His death was final. There was no spirit to haunt him.

Desperate to leave the voice behind him, Kylo strode down the hall making for a turbolift to take him to his personal quarters. He wanted a medical droid to examine the wound on the back of his head, which still ached. Just one more, on a long list of injuries in his life. At least this one was unlikely to scar.

The turbolift was empty, and he watched the lights flickering softly as floors passed him by.

 _Ben._

The voice whispered to him again, and as he gazed at the fluctuating lights he wondered if he was beginning to see something take shape between the shadows. A shape that could not have been there.

Letting anger rush in to defend him, Kylo unbelted his saber just as the turbolift came to a stop. In one fluid motion he swung it up at the wall, leaving a long, ragged red slash across it. Drawing in a deep breath he swung again, and again, keeping up his assault on the lights until there was nothing left but the orange, molten, metal gouges.

Breathing hard now, he returned the saber to its place on his hip and hit the button for the turbolift doors to open. They didn't move. He pushed it again, harder this time. Still nothing.

With a roar of frustration, he reached out, calling on the Force, and using that anger to fuel it as he directed a blast of energy at the stuck doors.

They bent out with a squeal of protest, and one ripped free of its track to go clattering across the floor.

In the hall, stunned personnel were looking at the mangled door until Kylo emerged.

At the sight of him they scurried away, suddenly far too busy for gawking.

Paying them no mind, Kylo continued the march to his chambers. He had no energy to spare on them, and they knew well enough to stay out of his path. Instead, his thoughts, troubled as they were, focused on a stolen cargo ship, a lightspeed jump away, and a name. Something he had not shared with Snoke, pulled from the girl's thoughts before she had found herself in his own. The intrusion had left him shaken, and all too exposed.

"Rey."

Finally, climbing to her feet, Rey dared to let go of the netting she had been clinging to. Just as she had regained her footing, the door to the cockpit opened, and BB-8 came barreling out, squealing and chirping in relief.

Kneeling back down, Rey put herself on eye to optics level with the little droid, smiling and reaching out to put a hand on his head.

"It's alright. I'm fine, I swear," she said, glancing up as Poe joined them. He wore a huge grin on his face that must have made his bruised cheek ache.

"If I had any doubts before, they are long gone. Welcome to the Resistance."

Rey looked up from BB-8, beaming despite herself.

"You went into lightspeed inside the hangar," she exclaimed, brushing past the compliment. "I didn't even know that was possible."

Poe's smile faltered for a fraction of a second before he nodded.

"That's what I said when I saw it done the first time. I learned that little maneuver from Han Solo. At least I knew it could be done. I think when Han tried it out he was just making a guess."

Thinking of Han made Rey remember what she had learned in the interrogation room. Did Poe know?

Climbing once more to her feet, she decided not to say anything about it just yet. Instead, she pointed at his cheek.

"Are you alright?" she asked. "He said he questioned you."

Poe reached up to run a hand over his stubbly cheek and chin.

"Oh, this wasn't courtesy of Kylo Ren. He doesn't need to lay a hand on someone to hurt them." He shook his head, leveling an eye back on Rey. "Did he question you at all?" he asked.

Rey started to shake her head, not wanting him to worry about something that was in the past now. She knew Poe saw her hesitation, though, and wasn't stupid enough to try and deny it.

"Yeah," she admitted. "He tried. He didn't get much before he stopped." She paused, seeing an extra edge of concern on Poe's face.

"He didn't learn anything about Luke," she assured him. "He mostly saw details about me. That I am from Jakku, and he saw a glimpse of the island, but didn't learn the location of Ahch-To." Rey was glad that she could at least know that much with certainty.

Poe relaxed a little and gave her another nod.

"Can't say I did quite as well," he admitted. "He knows I made contact with Luke, but not that that is where I found you."

Rey shuddered. How much worse might her treatment have been if he had known with certainty of her relationship to the Jedi master?

"What now?" sh asked changing the subject.

Poe hooked a thumb over his shoulder, in the direction of the cockpit, signaling for her to follow him in.

"Now we contact the Resistance and arrange to be picked up before the First Order can find us again." He plopped himself into the pilot's seat and Rey settled herself into the copilot's spot.

"I already sent out a message about our situation on one of the hidden frequencies," he said, slipping a headset on. Then he gave her a gentle look. "Why don't you try and get some sleep. It's been a busy couple of days."

It was an understatement of how recent days had been, but Rey didn't need to discuss specifics at the moment. She sighed, settling back into the chair. It wasn't exactly made with comfort in mind, but she was used to making do with subpar circumstances. As she closed her eyes, she heard BB-8 roll up next to her chair, emitting reassuring purring sounds.

At first, Rey wasn't sure what it was that woke her. Her sleep had been fitful, full of dark, faceless monsters, reaching for her with hands she couldn't escape. Voices whispered to her, all speaking at the same time so she couldn't understand any of what they said, save for one voice, and one word.

 _Rey._

Her eyes opened and she panicked for a moment before remembering where she was.

Poe was half bowed over the ship controls, one hand pressed to his headset earpiece as though it was hard to hear the speaker.

"Yes, General. We'll meet you there."

Poe sighed heavily as the transmission ended and leaned back into his chair, looking exhausted. Rey felt guilty that she had been the one to sleep. He had taken the most damage in their time as prisoners, brief as it might have been.

The troubled look hadn't vanished when he turned his head to look over at her, finding her awake and listening. Immediately he plastered on a mask of a smile, though Rey noticed that it didn't quite reach his eyes.

"Good news, finally. I heard back from the general. She gave me coordinates to meet them at."

Rey nodded and looked at the controls.

"Tell me where and I'll run things for a bit," she said. "You need some sleep."

Poe looked genuinely surprised.

"You're a pilot?" he asked. Rey took a moment to savor his expression.

"Yes."

Poe shrugged his shoulders. "Alright, be my guest." He turned back to the computer and pulled up the navicomputer map. "We are going to stop at Naboo. That's where Leia said she would pick us up. It isn't far."

"Easy enough," Rey said.

Poe sat back in his chair and sighed once, a fatigued sound pulled straight from the depths of his soul, and closed his eyes. He was asleep almost immediately.

Rey got up and stretched, her growling stomach demanding she search for any sort of rations. When was the last time she had eaten? Before working on the Sleuth. The ship was on autopilot while in hyperspace, so she was free to wander.

"What do you think my chances of finding something to eat are?" she asked BB-8. The droid had been mostly silent since she had woken. He beeped contemplatively and then rolled over to some side compartments, indicating at them with his head.

Rey went to them, kneeling down as she opened the compartment, finding some sort of dehydrated food packets.

"Well," she said, resting one arm across her knee and looking at the little droid. "I've had worse."

Rey was eating her third packet of food when the ship's computer began to ping an alert, letting her know that they had arrived at their destination.

Placing the uneaten remains of the food on a clear section of the dashboard, Rey took hold of the hyperspace switch and pulled it back slowly, watching the stars fall back into place.

Poe woke up at the change in momentum of the ship, blinking blurry eyes that were no doubt protesting being mercilessly woken after so little sleep.

"How are you feeling?" Rey asked, giving him a little more time to collect himself.

"I've felt better," Poe admitted, but there was still a smile that started tugging at the corners of his lips. Then, he turned back to the viewport and pointed out. "There, do you see it? That's the rebel fleet."

While Poe put his headset back on and began to communicate with the fleet, Rey looked at the planet beyond it. She almost wished they could make planetfall. It was beautiful, swirled in vibrant emerald and ocean sapphire. Instead, they made their way closer to the gathered ships, and Rey forced her eyes away from the beautiful celestial body.

As they got closer, she felt herself getting more and more nervous. What would the fleet be like? Would she meet Luke's sister? His twin sister, apparently? Was she like her brother? Was she Force sensitive?

A thousand questions whipped around her brain like a swarm of mynock, and the nerves only grew as they entered the hangar of the fleet's flagship, the Raddus.

"Alright, time for you to see your new home," Poe said, nonchalantly. Something about the word struck Rey, and she wasn't sure why. Home? Would this be home?

BB-8 beeped excitedly and rolled for the ramp, which had descended while Poe had made his little comment. Without saying anything, Rey followed them off the ship.

Three figures were already waiting for them, and Rey's eyes went wide. The woman must have been General Leia, but she thought she knew one of the other towering figures as well. At the woman's side was a wookiee. It must have been Han Solo's first mate, Chewbacca. Rey had heard many stories from the wookiees that passed through Niima outpost about Chewbacca. He was practically a legend. Then again, so was Luke. The final figure was a gold plated protocol droid, who managed to look nervous without the benefit of moving facial features.

"Poe." Leia smiled in relief and strode forward, reaching out to take Poe's hand and give it a squeeze. "I don't know how you managed to get away from the First Order a second time, but I wouldn't recommend trying your luck at a third," she said.

Poe chuckled and nodded his head, reaching up to lightly touch at his bruised jaw.

"Yeah, I am thinking I should take a break from my visits to the Finalizer. But if I had her with me," he gestured at Rey, "I would bet in my favor on getting out again. General, this is Rey. She's the one I told you about. The girl that was on Ahch-To with Luke."

Leia let go of his hand and turned her gaze on Rey. There was something so wise and worldly about that gaze, but at the same time a youthful spark that Rey suspected would never dim, no matter how many years the older woman lived. And beyond that, there was something that Rey sensed and recognized. Familiar and foreign all at once.

"Rey," she said. "We are glad to have you join us. I didn't know Luke had taken on another student."

"Oh, I wasn't his student. He just looked after me I don't- didn't have the Force." Suddenly she knew what the feeling she had been sensing was. "You're like Master Luke," she blurted. The last time she had felt this sensation had been in the interrogation room, with Kylo Ren, when he had used this power to reach out and steal her thoughts. But, where his had been darkness and pain, Leia was all warmth and strength.

Leia was Kylo Ren's mother, she realized.

"Oh, in some ways I am. But Luke's path was never mine," Leia agreed.

Poe licked his lips and shook his head. The frown he wore didn't look right on his face.

"I'm sorry we couldn't get Luke to come back, General," he said.

Chewbacca growled resolutely, and Leia reached out, without looking, and gave the wookiee a pat on the arm.

"Chewie's right. We won't give up on Luke. Give him time. If he has his heels dug in he just needs some time to think about the news you brought him."

"What is our plan, then? Do we have a new base?" Poe asked.

Leia nodded her head. "We believe so. Some time ago we sent out scouts to some old Rebel Alliance bases. The one on Dantooine wasn't being monitored, and we have technicians that have been making repairs to it. We are going to be making the jump to lightspeed soon. We can discuss that more in a moment. Are the two of you alright?" She looked at Rey. "Poe tells me the both of you were interrogated by Kylo Ren."

Rey swallowed hard and nearly answered when she felt pain blossom in her head, enough to make her reach up and rest a hand against her temple.

 _Ben!_

A man's voice cried out in her mind. Strong, but distant. It brought pain and conflict.

As quickly as it had come, the sensation passed, leaving her blinking.

"Ben?" she murmured quietly to herself before she remembered where she was. She returned her eyes to the general that addressed them, only to find Leia looking at her in surprise, the color drained from her face.

"Yes," Leia said slowly. "Are you alright?"

Rey gathered herself, and nodded, trying to look more assured than she felt.

"Yes. I'm fine. Just a little headache."

BB-8 whistled skeptically.

"General, it may be a good idea to have them visit medical." It was the protocol droid who spoke up. Leia was nodding her head.

"Threepio is right. I want both of you to go get yourselves checked out. We can discuss more about your mission after. I am interested to know what Luke has been doing for the past six years." Leia was more collected with every word, and before she had even finished speaking it was impossible to tell she had ever been unnerved by the name of her son.

"I would be happy to take-"

An alarm went up in the hangar, cutting off whatever the protocol droid had been about to say. Rey looked around, watching as people began scrambling about the various fighters and tugging on flight suits.

"What is it? What's happening?" she asked.

Grim resolve showed on Leia's face.

"I don't understand," Poe said.

"It's the First Order," Leia replied, answering Rey's question. "They've caught up to us."


	5. Seeing Things

"General?" Poe's voice was urgent and clipped as he waited for permission to act, the warm ease that he tended to display suddenly replaced by the attention of a soldier. Leia nodded at him.

"Buy us some time, Commander Dameron. We need to prepare the fleet to make the lightspeed jump. I need to go to the bridge. Can you take care of her?" she asked with a look at Rey.

Poe didn't even glance at her as he nodded once, sharply.

"Of course," he said.

With an almost apologetic look at Rey, Leia turned and marched away, flanked by Chewbacca, and the protocol droid she had called Threepio.

Poe was turning to Rey, and she knew she needed to cut him off before he could suggest she leave and hide somewhere.

"I want to help," she said. Poe was nodding his head.

"We have an unmanned X-Wing. I was going to offer it to you since you're a pilot yourself. I had hoped there would be a little time to introduce you to it first. You up for it?"

Rey blinked in surprise that he had apparently not been about to try and send her away, then nodded back.

"Just show me where."

Poe led her to a rack of spare flight suits and they both pulled them on. No time to link the suits to their specific ships, and no time for Poe to find his own suit.

"BB-8," Poe spoke as he pulled the red-orange flight suit on. "I want you to stick with Rey, alright? Watch her back and tell her anything she needs to know about the X-Wing. You think you can do that for me, Buddy?"

BB-8 whistled fiercely and Rey wished she could have spared time to offer his a smile. Instead she was already being whisked away to the rows of fighters.

An explosion outside made the hangar tremble, and Rey glanced at the big, open doors in time to see pin pricks of TIE fighters fly by. Were they firing on the hangar?

"Rey." Poe's voice was urgent and she found him standing next to a ladder that was pressed to the side of an X-Wing. She swallowed hard and climbed up, swinging a leg over and climbing into the open cockpit.

The fighter began to power on quickly at the press of a button, and she heard BB-8 being pulled up into the astromech station. A helmet was settled on the console in front of her.

As she picked it up her mind flashed back to Jakku, and the helmet she had worn on nights when she could spare time to sit outside her AT-AT and watch the sky. That helmet had belonged to a pilot named Dosmit Raeh. This helmet was now Rey's.

"Any questions for me?" Poe asked from the ground, clearly impatient to be off to his own fighter.

"Yeah, why are you waiting on me? I'll be fine. Go," Rey said.

If Poe had any issues with her ordering him around, he didn't voice them. Instead, he reached up and gave the side of the X-Wing a sharp smack before dashing away.

The cockpit was alive now with low, electrical drones, and the hatch above her hissed as it shut, sealing itself against what would be the vacuum of space in only a few more moments. Other fighters were already rising from the floor and heading for the outside of the ship.

"All teams read?" Poe's voice crackled over the headset in the helmet to her.

A chorus of voices were raised, all in confirmation.

"I copy," Rey said, adding her voice to the collective.

Putting her hands on the control she felt a shiver of anticipation run up her spine. The fighter rose slowly at first, while BB-8 beeped and chirped directions at her. She recognized most of the controls, but nodded her head with each new bit of information, as they left the hangar behind

A small voice in the back of her mind was screaming that what she was absolutely crazy for doing this. She had never piloted a fighter before. She had never been in combat like this.

"Alright, we've got three destroyers out here and a whole lot of TIE fighters, distract them from the main fleet, keep their fighters between us and them to limit their ability to fire on the Raddus."

Rey gasped sharply as the sight of the battle already in progress. The three star destroyers loomed, ominous and massive. She fell in with the other Resistance ships that were just approaching the chaos.

"Okay, I can do this," she whispered to herself as she had in the Finalizer. Her hands were sweaty as she gripped the controls, flipping up the trigger guard and getting ready.

"Give 'em hell!" Poe called once more over the comms, and then everything was chaos as they dove into the swarm of TIE fighters.

Laser fire was everywhere, enemy and friendly alike. Rey wondered how anyone made sense of it all, even as she twisted and wove through the mayhem.

BB-8 whistled at her, urging her to fire.

"Let's see what I've got," Rey said, voice low, and she squeezed the trigger. Ahead of her, a TIE fighter burst into brief flames, the wreckage floating forcefully off into space from the blast.

"Whoa," she breathed, eyes wide and shining. BB-8 trilled a congratulations at her.

After that it became almost a pattern, a dance, where before she had seen a tumultuous melee. Every now and again someone would report an X-Wing down, and her heart would give a nervous flutter.

"Fleet's almost ready, be prepared to return on their signal," Poe announced. How long had the fight been going on? It couldn't have been that long, but it felt like each second and decision was spread out over an hour.

Slowly, a feeling of dread had begun to grow on her. It was familiar, and it took her awhile to place it, but she realized suddenly that it was the same sense of foreboding she had felt as she waited for Kylo Ren in the interrogation room.

How likely was it that one of those destroyers was the Finalizer? Was Kylo Ren a pilot?

As soon as she wondered about it, she felt a pull. A subtle urging by something she could not see. Her eyes scanned the other fighters, and she didn't notice when she stopped firing, engrossed in her search.

Ahead of her she spotted an advanced TIE starfighter, flanked by special ops fighters. It spun and rolled through the battlefield, easily dodging fire from the Resistance X-Wings.

It was him. She knew it was, the same way she had known he had been alive in the interrogation room after the Force blast, without even having to approach him. The same way she had known he was searching for her, when she and Poe had been escaping the Finalizer.

"You want me?" she muttered into the air of her ship. "Here I am."

Even as the words left her mouth, the TIE twisted abruptly and headed straight for her.

Rey opened fire, refusing to change her course. The fighter rolled, avoiding the blasts easily, its two flanking TIEs following behind it. But, none of the three fired on her.

At the last second, the advanced fighter sloped downward and flew under her. A snatch of emotion hit her mind like a blaster bolt. Nervous anticipation. Concern.

Pushing the invading emotions away, Rey turned to follow him. If he wasn't going to fire on her, then she would have to keep firing on him. He was impossible for her weapon systems to track, dodging and spinning in ways other fighters could never hope it imitate.

"Rey," Poe's voice over the comm surprised her and she jumped in her seat.

"You're getting too close to the destroyers," he warned.

Rey looked around and cursed her foolishness. He was leading her back towards the First Order fleet. Rey started to turn, abandoning her futile pursuit to head back to safety. Could a tractor beam catch a ship as small as hers? She didn't want to find out.

 _"Rey."_

This was not Poe's voice, and it was not coming to her through the comm system. Rey's breath caught in her throat. Impossible. It was impossible for her to be hearing that voice.

She gritted her teeth and imagined throwing up mental barriers against the Dark Side warrior.

 _"I know you can hear me,"_ he said, though his voice was quieter now. _"I can help you. I can help you understand your new power."_

Rey focused harder on trying to push him out. She didn't have to look at her controls to know that he was the one on her tail now.

"Rey," Poe's voice came over the comms again, and it seemed suddenly so loud compared to the whispering voice in her head. "Get back to the Raddus, we are ready to jump."

"Copy," Rey said.

Hitting the acceleration, she rocketed back to the fleet, almost too fast to move around the TIE fighters that still swarmed like a cloud of insects. BB-8 wooped excitedly, as Rey fired off a few final shots, watching another TIE fighter go down.

She was the second to last one into the hangar, with Poe bringing up the rear. Their ships had hardly finished touching down when the Raddus made the jump to lightspeed.

Rey sighed heavily and leaned back in the pilot's chair, closing her eyes for a brief moment, listening to the sounds of the engines winding down.

BB-8 chirped questioningly at her and Rey hit the switch for the cockpit to open. It did so with a hiss and she saw that a maintenance worker had already rolled a ladder up to the ship she could get down.

When her feet hit the floor, Rey looked around. The numbers she had seen before the battle had already been so small compared with what they faced. Now she saw even fewer. How many had been lost? She had not counted as they had been announced during the battle.

She was still standing, contemplating their losses, when Poe came striding up to her.

"I'm headed for the bridge to speak with the general. Come on."

There was an edge of worry in his tone and she nodded, following him at nearly a run.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

Poe didn't stop moving, but spared her a glance over his shoulder.

"They shouldn't have been able to find us so quickly, even if they had tracked the cargo ship," he explained shortly.

After that, they saved their breath for the dash to the bridge. When they arrived, it was just as busy as the hangar had been, though with much less dirt and grease.

Rey stopped short to take it all in with wide eyes. Organics and droids alike bustled about various computer consoles and towering display monitors. Not far past the entrance were the already familiar figures of General Organa and Chewbacca.

Realizing she was gawking at the whole thing, Rey snapped her mouth shut and hurried to catch up to Poe, to hear what he was saying.

"Damaged?" he asked, and there was dread in his tone.

"Yes," answered a young woman with intricately braided blonde hair. "We won't be able to make it all the way to Dantooine before we fall out of hyperspace and have to rely on our standard engines."

Leia looked past Poe to Rey and offered an apologetic smile, though when she spoke she addressed the group.

"We are already making plans. The First Order has found out how to use lightspeed tracking, or they never would have caught up with us as fast as they did. We are going to send groups out in transports to drop out of lightspeed on planets where we have allies. They will wait and circle around, hopefully catching the First Order from behind once they think they have us cornered."

"There is no known record of a successful lightspeed tracking test," Threepio interjected.

Leia shot him an unamused look.

"I'd say we have our example now," she said dryly before continuing. "I need to announce the plan to the rest of the fleet and we need to start preparing immediately."

"What do you need me to do?" Poe asked. Leia reached out to put a hand on his arm.

"I need you to take yourself and Rey to medical and get looked at. Then, I want you to get some real sleep before things get bad again," she said.

Poe looked like he wanted to argue, but instead he glanced at Rey, and held his tongue, swallowing hard.

"Poe, sometimes you need to slow down, just a little bit," Leia said warmly.

Poe nodded. "Yes, General."

Rey followed Poe off of the bridge, wondering if there was something she might try and say to lift his apparently lowered spirits, but the adrenaline of battle that had kept her moving was starting to fade. Instead, she wondered what she could do for the Resistance. She had come to help, but one space battle in which she had done little more than act as a distraction didn't seem nearly enough. There had to be more.

Rey stopped in her tracks and BB-8 ran into the backs of her legs, knocking her forward several steps.

"Can I take an X-Wing?" she asked.

Poe turned to her in confusion, so she hurried to explain.

"I need to go back to Master Luke. I can try again to convince him, tell him how dire the situation is. Maybe he's had time to think about it. Maybe he's changed his mind."

Poe's confused look shifted to one caught between hopeful and skeptical.

"You think he'll listen?"

Rey wanted to nod and assure him that, yes, of course Master Luke would listen this time. But, would he? Instead of offering a 'yes' or 'no' answer she forced herself to shrug.

"I have to try. And if he refuses, I will meet you all on Dantooine anyways."

BB-8 chirped, expressing his dislike at the idea of her going off on her own. Poe looked from her to the droid as he thought over her proposal.

"On one condition," he said, looking back up at Rey's face. Her nose wrinkled in confusion as she waited.

"BB-8, you willing to go with her again?" he asked.

BB-8 jerked back a little and beeped in surprise.

"Nobody I would trust more," Poe assured him.

The next sound the droid made was strikingly close to an 'mmhm,' and Rey smiled at the dutiful little astromech.

"Alright," Poe said. "You'll take care of each other." He nodded at Rey, apparently reconciling himself with this new plan. Reaching down to his waist, he drew a simple blaster from his belt, handing it to Rey. "Take this. BB-8, get her to the hangar for me. I'll meet you both there in a few minutes."

They parted ways without another word, and Rey looked down to BB-8. He beeped authoritatively and she chuckled, nodding her head wearily.

"Yes, alright. I'm coming."

"Failure is unacceptable."

Snoke's voice was raised in anger once more, and his hologram stood, towering over the figure of Kylo Ren, who knelt on the ground in subjugation.

"So, you will explain to me just how it is that you have come to me in failure for the second time."

Frustration choked Kylo's lungs and he had to force himself to answer the accusations being thrown at him.

"It was not a failure. We are tracking the Resistance. She can't escape us." He realized after he spoke that he had specified, rather than referring to the Resistance as a whole. Snoke did not acknowledge the slip, but Kylo was not so foolish as to believe he had not caught it.

"You held back in your attack. Your lingering affection for your mother stayed your hand," Snoke said. "You swore allegiance to me, and to the Dark Side, yet you continue to give in to the Light."

Anger rose swiftly in Kylo's breast. How much had he given to the Dark? How much did he have left to give until there was nothing left of himself at all? He opened his mouth to speak, but Snoke cut him off swiftly.

"Enough. I already know of this lightspeed tracking from General Hux's report. I don't want your excuses. I can sense them in your mind already. Out of my sight. To your chambers. Meditate on where your true loyalties lie, and do not come to me again until I have summoned you. When the Resistance is located you will destroy it without hesitation. If not…" He let the threat hang unsaid in the air like a blade over Kylo's neck.

Biting his tongue, Kylo stood and walked swiftly from the room. Anger roiled in him. Anger at himself, at Snoke, at his mother, and his father. And that _girl_. He refused to even let her name pass through his mind. What had he been thinking? Offering to help her learn of her new power? He could almost tell himself it had been a ploy to trick her back into First Order custody.

But, Kylo had never been one for lying. Certainly not to himself. Snoke was right. Some crack had appeared in him. The Light forced its way back into his heart, clouding his mind and his judgment, despite all he had done to shut it out for good.

His anger had not abated by the time he reached his rooms. The door hissed shut behind him and all was silence, save for his own heavy breathing.

Something. He needed something.

Kylo raked his gaze over his room, realizing he still wore his mask. It was heavy and stifling under the weight of his recent mistakes, and he could not bear that weight any longer.

Reaching up, he pressed the release and pulled it free as though it had begun to burn him, holding it out in front of himself gingerly.

Without thinking, he wound back his arm and threw it as hard as he could with a cry of rage.

The helmet hurtled across the room to crash against the wall with a heavy, metallic clank, before falling to land on his desk, scattering papers, and sending pens clattering to the floor.

He turned then, looking for something else to break. His hand rose to his saber hilt and he pulled it free violently, thumbing it to life, the angry hiss and crackle of the unstable red blade filling the air. He started forward, not even sure what he intended to use it on.

A surge in the Force stopped him in his tracks. Something in the air seemed to change. Something in the room.

Slowly he turned, saber raised in case it was some sort of threat.

He heard the sound of a discharging blaster and saw the bolt come at him. Bringing up his saber, he moved to intercept it, and saw the bolt go through the blade to strike him in the chest.

Kylo curled in on himself as he was hit, his free hand coming up to grab at the wound, only to find that there was none.

With a deep, shaky breath he looked down. There was no blackened, cauterized hole, or smell of burned flesh. Quickly he looked up again, scanning the room for the assassin, trying to fathom how someone could have hidden themselves so completely from him.

Instead of an assassin, he found a girl.

Kylo's eyes flew wide open in a rare expression of complete and utter surprise.

"Impossible," he breathed.

The scavenger was looking back at him with equal shock, as though he had been the one to suddenly appear in her room and begin shooting.

Reaching out, Kylo called on the Force, meaning to pin her arms to her sides and keep that blaster pointed safely away from him, not sure what fluke had saved him from the first bolt. He did not wish to risk a second one.

Rey didn't move, the blaster remaining up and aimed at him.

Grimacing, Kylo tried again, and was met with the same result.

Slowly, Rey lowered the blaster ever so slightly when it became apparent whatever he was trying was not working on her. Her face was filled with confusion and anger.

"What is this?" she demanded.

Kylo's eyes went again to the blaster, noting that even though she had it lowered, her finger remained on the trigger and she gripped it tightly, ready to fire again if she needed to. He found that he had no answer for her, as his own mind struggled to understand the same question.

When he didn't answer, she shook her head and looked down at something he couldn't see.

"You can't see him?" she whispered, then looked back at him with narrow, calculating eyes. "You're not really here," she said.

Her eyes searched his face, and he nearly reached up to touch it when he remembered that he had removed his mask.

"Return to the First Order," he replied, trying to press the suggestion on her through the Force, testing to see if his words would work any better than his attempts at physical restraint.

Rey's mouth twisted into an impressive snarl.

"Whatever you are trying, it won't work," she snapped back immediately.

Kylo hummed thoughtfully. No effect. Whatever this was, it was not being done by him, and she seemed just as confused. So, if neither of them had attempted such a link, why did it exist at all?

"The Resistance is doomed," he said evenly, trying to hide any sort of doubt from his face. "You have no place there." He no longer tried to put the Force into his words, but spoke plainly. "You need someone to teach you how to control this power."

Rey shook her head, a loose curl of wayward hair brushing over her cheek.

"Monster," she growled.

Kylo smiled humorlessly. Not very original in her insults.

And, as suddenly as she had appeared, the scavenger was gone.

He stared at the place where she had stood, unsure of what to make of the encounter, crossing the room until he would have been standing toe to toe with her before she vanished, looking for any sign that she had actually been there.

Realizing his saber was still ignited, he powered it down and belted it again, his anger from before vanished, replaced by curiosity.

"Interesting," he murmured, and slowly, a small, incredulous grin tugged at the corners of his lips.

Rey glanced up and down the hall, grateful to find that she was alone. Or, at least, mostly alone. She was equally grateful that droids of BB-8's make could not physically display their emotions, or she suspected he would be looking at her like she had lost her mind.

Still, even without expression, the optical orb somehow managed to make her feel self conscious over what had happened. Clearly, he was waiting for an explanation.

"I-" Rey didn't know where to begin. "BB-8, please don't say anything to anyone about this," she said. He beeped in confusion and Rey heaved a shaky sigh as she moved to stand where Kylo Ren had been. Or not been.

Realizing she still held her blaster in one hand, Rey tucked it into her belt as she searched for a way to explain what had just happened to the droid, who was clearly concerned over what he had witnessed.

"I thought I saw someone," she admitted slowly. BB-8 was apparently not willing to let it go at that, and whistled again, prompting her to continue.

"Kylo Ren," she began. "I thought I saw Kylo Ren."

BB-8 trilled in panic, and his head swiveled about, looking for any sign of danger, or of the First Order warrior.

"No, no," Rey went on trying to be reassuring. "He wasn't really there. I don't think he was, at least." This did little to clear up her own confusion. "Can the Force make you see people?" she asked.

The droid rolled in a small circle, effectively shrugging, though he continued to look at her. The longer he did, the more uncomfortable Rey became.

"I'm fine, I swear. Please, can we go to the hangar?"

Slowly, BB-8 nodded his head and then turned and began to lead her down the hall once again.

With one more glance at the spot on the floor where Kylo Ren had stood, and the blaster burn on the wall behind it, Rey moved to follow.


	6. Nightmares

"You okay?"

Rey was still feeling shaken by the time she got to the hangar with BB-8. Poe was waiting for them by her fighter, looking impatient. His expression changed to one of concern as soon as he saw her face.

"You look like you saw a ghost," Poe said.

She raised an eyebrow, unsure exactly how to respond. Not a ghost, unfortunately. That might have been less alarming.

"I'm fine. Just a long day," she reassured him.

Poe looked at her for another moment and then glanced down at BB-8, as though the droid might fill him in. BB-8 looked between the two of them and remained quiet. Rey suppressed a secretive smile.

"Alright," Poe said, apparently deciding it wasn't worth pressing the issue. "You're loaded up with some rations, should keep you for a few days, if it takes that long. Other supplies. Coordinates for the base on Dantooine have been logged in the navi-computer, so when you're done you can find us. You still sure about this?"

Rey was looking up at the X-Wing as Poe spoke, nodding her head distractedly until he asked if she was still sure about the mission.

"Yeah, I'm still sure. I'll come back, with or without Luke," she promised.

Poe smiled and nodded, reaching out to pat her on the back and then gesture up to the cockpit.

It was only her second flight in the X-Wing, but it all felt so natural to her already, like she was supposed to be there. There was something soothing about the whine of the engines as she rose from the floor. Poe stood nearby, watching her and BB-8 depart. He raised his hand to wave her off and she gave a quick wave in return as she turned for the entrance to the hangar.

As she left it all behind she had to wonder if she should have told someone about what she had seen. What if they thought of her as a threat? She was so new to the Resistance, and they barely knew her. Would they think she was a spy? Surely, a spy would never willingly tell others what they were.

Falling out of hyperspace was terrifying. It felt like she was going to lose control of her ship and go spinning off into space. The world slammed back into place much more suddenly than a normal end to a jump, pushing her against the safety harness that kept her in her chair.

When the world finally stopped tilting, and she got her bearings, she looked around. The X-Wing hovered sedentary in space. There was nothing around. No First Order ships were dropping out of hyperspace to come after her.

Rey managed a grin. She hadn't died. That was a good first step in her mission. BB-8's questioning chirps had her nodding her head.

"Yes, set course for Ahch-To. We need to hurry."

With an affirmative beep, BB-8 complied, mapping out their route. The small fighter leapt forward, back into hyperspace once again.

Rey would have a few hours before they arrived at their destination. Fatigue, which had been crouching ever close to her since she had left the island, was easing forward again to take a stronger hold of her.

"I'm going to shut my eyes for a bit. You okay to keep watch on things?" she asked BB-8, settling more comfortably into her chair with a weary sigh.

BB-8 beeped again, assuring her the trip would go smoothly. Rey closed her eyes.

She couldn't remember where she was. Somewhere nearby thunder rumbled, but rain had not yet broken over her. She was laying down, curled up in a cot. Her cot. The night was warm enough that she didn't need a blanket, instead simply laying in her nightshirt and pants.

She was on the edge of sleep, coming in and out of dreams that had been increasingly troubled over the years. Darkness, and whispers that sounded more reassuring as time passed.

She was afraid. Very afraid. And that fear had fed into a sense of isolation she had felt for as long a she could remember.

The sound of a lightsaber being ignited snapped her to full wakefulness and she rolled over to see Luke standing over her. He looked younger, she thought vaguely, less grey than she remembered. He was bathed in the green light of his saber blade, which was held, poised over her.

Rey's body moved as if it had a mind of its own, as if every twitch of muscle was predetermined. She met Luke's eyes and saw his panic. Her hand reached out, calling her saber from across the room, knocking pens and scrolls from her table to clatter onto the floor. Her own saber was ignited almost before it had even reached her hand, and she rolled to bring it up and defend against Luke.

Despair surged in her chest. How could he do this? What had she done that he would want her dead?

It was quickly replaced by anger. How dare he attack her? She was family. He had promised to look after her and to help her. The voices that had whispered to her in her dreams were right. Her own family had betrayed her.

Rey pulled the anger to her and built on it, letting go of the saber with one hand to reach out.

"Ben, no!" Luke cried out as the roof of the hut caved in on them both.

Rey's eyes snapped open and she gasped, shaking and looking around the cockpit of her X-Wing fighter.

 _Ben._

She had heard Luke cry out to Ben. To _Kylo Ren_ , her mind corrected. Luke had once been training his nephew?

"What was that?" she asked the empty air, her breath shaking.

BB-8 beeped at her in confusion and the ship started to pull out of hyperspace.

Ahch-To, which she had barely been away from for more than a day cycle, loomed in front of her, a swirl of blue, grey, and white.

Putting her hands on the controls, Rey pushed the dream away. A nightmare. It had been a nightmare.

"Just a bad dream," she reassured the droid.

Now was not the time to be rattled by a bad dream. She needed to focus. The Resistance needed her to succeed at this, to bring Luke out of exile.

Apprehension grew in her gut as they approached. She could see the ancient Jedi huts dotting the landscape. The Lanai, as they bustled about their work of maintaining the island.

Rey landed the X-Wing close to where Poe had crashed before.

"Alright," she breathed, hearing the hiss of air as the cockpit unsealed and began to open. It was mid-day. Luke could be anywhere, but somehow she knew how to find him.

Rey realized she could sense him, like a bright beacon of light that she could feel, rather than physically see. Was this the Force?

Throwing down her retractable ladder, Rey climbed down to the ground, taking a moment to stand and try to flex this new power. It didn't really feel new. Rather, it felt like a muscle that had sat, forgotten and disused for many years.

There was light all over the island. Pinpricks on the slopes and nearby cliffs where animals lived. And there was something else. Rey felt something sinister and dark, lurking.

No. This wasn't why she had returned. Making her way over the rocky hills of the ancient Jedi island, she headed for a tree that was somehow even older still. Luke Skywalker was inside of it.

Rey had not spent much time around the tree. Inside, she knew, there was a collection of tomes, as old as the huts of the island were. They detailed the teachings of the Jedi.

As she approached, she saw his silhouette appear in the doorway, standing, waiting, watching for her.

The wind around her picked up, and she caught snatches of whispered words in a voice she could not place.

 _Peace._

It seemed to sigh.

 _Knowledge._

She stood a few feet away, looking at the man who had once nearly felt like family. Why, now, did he feel almost like a stranger?

"Why have you come back?" Luke spoke first, and there was a chill in his tone that went beyond his usual melancholy.

Rey clenched her hands at her sides and swallowed hard.

"I'm here to convince you to come back with me," she announced firmly.

Luke shook his head, looking incredulous.

"I'm not leaving the island," he said. "What made you think my answer to you would be any different than my answer to the pilot?"

Poe. The pilot's name was Poe. Rey had to stop herself from correcting him.

"The Resistance is going to make a last stand," she explained. "They need you. And," she paused. Had she realized before that moment that there was another reason she was desperate for Luke to leave the island with her?

"And?" he asked. Rey took another step forward.

"Something's changed. Something I don't understand."

To her surprise, Luke nodded his head.

"The Force. You feel it now, don't you."

The surprise must have show on her face, because he nodded grimly without her having to say another word.

"I warned you not to leave," he said.

Rey felt a twinge of confusion.

"Not to leave? What does my leaving have to do with the Force?"

Instead of answering, Luke left the tree, passing her on the hill and striding away without a backward glance.

"I can't leave," he called back to her.

Rey watched him, her confusion building. Why would he refuse to teach her if he knew she could feel the Force? Wasn't this what his life had been about before?

The day passed quickly after that. Rey stayed at Luke's heels for the entirety of it, begging, demanding, cajoling, and guilting. He never changed his answer. He barely spoke to her again at all, and when the sun sank, he went into his hut and practically slammed the door in her face.

Rey stood in the grey light of twilight, feeling oddly rejected.

What had changed so much that he would treat her like this? Her new connection to the Force? Why would that make her worth his scorn? He had never been so cold to her before. Was it really somehow taboo? She hadn't asked for this power. It was simply a part of her.

Rey tried knocking on his door until the suns had completely set, and she was standing in the dark.

Should she stay and try to sleep? How much time did the Resistance have? She knew she needed to return as soon as possible, but she couldn't leave without Luke.

One more day, she decided. She would spend the night and try again the next day. If she couldn't change his mind she would have to return as Poe had. Empty handed.

The way back to her own hut was etched into her brain, and the walk to it in the dark would be no issue for her.

As she turned from the doorway, she was surprised when a little light flared to life in front of her.

Glancing down, Rey saw BB-8, waiting patiently for her. She had thought he would stay with the X-Wing, rather than try to navigate the rocky, uneven island, but there he was, waiting on the stone pathway. A small light extended from a compartment to give her something to see by.

Rey smiled and her heart felt a little lighter for the droid's dedication.

When she reached her hut, she was surprised to see it was still untouched. It was true that she hadn't been gone long, but the Lanai had never been fond of her presence, and were usually quite quick about tidying things up around the island.

Settling herself on her bed, Rey sighed deeply. If she had a chance for a true night of sleep she knew it would be wise to take it. The small snatches of rest she had been getting were not going to be able to sustain her forever.

Without managing another word to BB-8, she lay down, her head on the familiar, almost nonexistent pillow, drawing her blanket up around her. Sleep covered her almost just as quickly.

The oblivion did not last.

Rey came gasping out of the same dream she had had on her X-Wing, of Luke standing over her, weapon drawn.

Struggling to regain her breath she lay still, gazing up at the ceiling of the hut. Moonlight filtered in through slats in the window covering, and her eyes strove to adjust and give her sight.

Her breathing slowly calmed as she pondered it again.

Why was she seeing this? Had it been unintentionally stolen from Kylo Ren during her interrogation?

Groaning, Rey pulled her blanket up to her face and bunched it up over her eyes, wanting to block it all out.

How had things managed to get so complicated?

"Can't sleep?"

Rey's heart slammed against her ribs and she jolted upright in bed, reaching thoughtlessly for her blaster, forgetting that the last time this had happened, it had no effect.

It took her a moment to pick out Kylo Ren's form. He was seated not far from her, half hidden in shadows, though in the hut a beam of moonlight should have been falling over him, and illuminating that spot. How long had he been there, watching? His face was mostly devoid of emotion, pale and framed in loose curls of black hair that reflected no light.

It was hard to pull her hand back from her weapon, even knowing that it would do her no good to have. Now that she was aware of him, she felt a sort or ripple in the Force, just as she had felt the first time. She had assumed it was the foggy feeling of being woken from a nightmare.

When she didn't answer, Kylo Ren shifted and she wondered where he was. He was not clothed in the ominous robes she had seen him in on the Finalizer, though this cloth was still black. It was loose, resembling a nightshirt and slacks.

"There are circled under your eyes," he observed casually.

Rey resisted the urge to reach up and touch at the skin.

"It looks like you haven't slept in awhile," he continued.

Would the offhand remarks continue until she answered? Their last conversation had not lasted long. Would this one be over as quickly?

"I can't sleep," she finally said, her voice curt.

He cocked his head to the side, as though it was a strange thing for her to have said.

"Why?" he asked, voice low and irritatingly smooth.

Rey continued to stare at him, trying to determine what his goal could be in this line of questioning.

"Can we not do this?" she asked, instead of offering him an answer.

Kylo Ren remained silent, watching patiently.

The dreams were about him. She had not seen him, but she had heard Luke call his name. Were they more than just dreams?

"Nightmares," she finally admitted, feeling absurd for speaking to him about it. Out of the corner of her eye she could see BB-8. He had powered on at the sound of her voice and was simply watching her. He must have realized what was happening, as every now and again he would turn to look in the same direction as her, at the spot where she saw Kylo Ren sitting.

"What could you possibly have seen to give you nightmares?" he asked, and there was just the slightest bit of condescension in his voice.

Should she ask him? Would he tell her the truth of what she was seeing?

Rey took a deep breath, centering herself out of habit.

"You," she said. The simple word sent a small flash of shock over his face.

"And of Master Luke," she finished.

Kylo Ren's eyes got wider.

"Skywalker?" he asked quietly. "What do you know about him?"

Instead of answering, Rey watched his face to see if it would give anything away. She had forgotten he didn't know where she was from.

Kylo Ren was looking around as though he might be able to see her surroundings. Anger passed briefly over his features, but he breathed out a small, incredulous laugh.

"You're from wherever the pilot met Luke. An apprentice?" Then his eyes narrowed. "No. Not an apprentice. Your connection to the Force was closed off."

Rey didn't want to listen to him puzzle it out.

"Were you ever an apprentice to Luke?" she asked, to draw his attention back off of her.

Abruptly, Kylo Ren rose to his feet, towering over her as she sat, half propped up in her bed as though moving to much might trigger him into attacking. Not that he could harm her in this odd connection.

He looked like he wanted to come closer, to question her over how she would know enough to ask him this.

"Did the General tell you?" he asked.

Rey shook her head. "No, I saw it in my dream."

He continued to watch her with dark, cautious eyes.

"You saw what, exactly?"

There was a warning in his tone, though whether it was a warning not to continue at all, or simply to be careful about what she said, Rey wasn't sure.

"I saw him raise his saber as though to strike. And I saw you collapse the hut on him." Rey decided to keep it as simple as possible.

Kylo Ren snorted and looked around slowly, searching whatever his own surroundings might have been.

"What my uncle did that night… I should thank him for it. Without it, I might never have left his school. I would never have learned about true power."

"Master Luke would never just attack someone. You must have done something that made him think it was necessary," Rey said.

This finally seemed to trigger him, and Kylo Ren crossed the room in a few long strides, standing at the edge of her bed and looming over her. Rey's hand closed around her blaster again, and she wanted to draw back away from him, but reminded herself that he couldn't lay a finger on her during these meetings.

"I did nothing, and he crept into my room and tried to murder me while I slept," he said.

She had expected him to yell or shout denials at her. Instead, his volume dropped even lower, as though he were telling her a secret. Despite the anger in his eyes, she saw there was something else as well, hidden, glinting under the surface. Fear?

She was searching his face, still trying to decide the truth of what she had seen. His own eyes seemed to search her. How light was the hut? How much could he see?

"You think he is so benevolent," he said. "Did you wonder why your power was locked away? Why that barrier began to crack when you left his presence?"

Rey's eyes narrowed slightly and now she did draw back.

"What are you suggesting?" she asked.

A small, smug smirk appeared on his face.

"It takes someone very strong in the Force, with many years of experience to cut someone else off from it."

He was still watching her closely, waiting to see her reaction.

"Are you suggesting Master Luke is the one who did that?" Her voice was incredulous, bordering on offended.

Kylo Ren stayed where he was, uncomfortably close to her. Rey reminded herself once more that he was not truly there and she had nothing to fear from him.

"I'm not suggesting anything," he retorted. "I'm telling you that's what he did."

Rey shook her head. "No. He wouldn't," she said.

Kylo Ren finally moved back, giving her more space. Rey sucked in a breath she hadn't realized she was holding.

"You seem to think you know him so well. What he would and wouldn't do. If he has nothing to hide from you, why wouldn't he answer questions you asked him?"

"How do you know he doesn't?" she asked.

"If he was honest about who he was with you, you wouldn't so dutifully defend him."

He seemed so infuriatingly sure of himself. Rey gritted her teeth, staring at him, unwilling to break his gaze. He didn't scare her.

The Force shifted around her, like slipping under the surface of the ocean and feeling the water close over your head.

Rey stared at the place Kylo Ren had been for a long time, trying to dismiss what he had said. He was an enemy, on the opposite side of a war. He would try anything, say anything, to drive her away from such a potentially powerful ally.

After she had been silent for several minutes, BB-8 rolled forward and beeped at her in concern.

Rey swallowed hard and shook her head.

"He's gone," she said. "He was trying to tell me that Master Luke cut me off from the Force."

BB-8's head swiveled back slightly, as though he were shocked by the idea, whirring and beeping some more.

"No, it's crazy."

Still, her mind was a tumult, unsure of what to believe. Something whispered to her, insisting he was telling the truth.

Climbing to her feet, Rey left her hut, BB-8 following her back out into the night as she headed determinedly for Luke's hut.


	7. Truth

This time, when Rey stood outside Luke's door, she did not knock. Instead, she tried to feel for him, as she had when she had arrived on Ahch-To. Stretching out with her mind, she searched. Her concentration almost broke the moment she found him. He was calm and still. Asleep.

Raising her hand, Rey reached for the door to his hut, and found it was not locked. Why would he bother to lock it? The Lanai wouldn't intrude, and Rey was no threat to him. He trusted her.

Muted moonlight poured in through the door behind her, as Rey entered. She crept towards the bed, trying to remain stealthy, stopping at the edge of it, and looking down at the old Jedi master.

It was a reverse of her dream, she realized. Now, it was she that stood over him while he slept. The thought of it made goosebumps rise on her arms.

Carefully, as though the disturbance to the air would be enough to wake him, Rey reached out until her hand was only inches from his brow.

How had she done this before? Reading Kylo Ren's mind had mostly been an accident. She had felt the assault on her own mental defenses that he had launched, and had pushed back. With Luke, there was no resistance. In sleep, his mind was open.

She reached out with her own mind, imagined walking into his, and began her search.

Ben Solo. She was looking for memories of Ben Solo. The Jedi academy. That night. Had he really stood over his nephew with the intent of destroying him?

It was difficult to focus herself. So many stray thoughts tried to distract her. Snatches of conversation that were not a part of the memory she needed to find.

"Ben, no!"

The cry made Rey flinch, and she almost broke the link, to physically fall away from him. Did she really _want_ to know if it was true?

A dim light filled her mind as she forced herself to be immersed in the memory. It was much the same through Luke's eyes. But, now, she got to see what happened before Ben awoke.

Luke reached out, a mirror of what Rey was doing now, and searched Ben's mind.

He found darkness, and death. Whispered voices, coaxing him and driving him from the light. This boy would be the death of everything Luke held dear. He would be the destruction of the academy that Luke had built. He would be the death of his own father, and of countless other innocents.

Luke's saber was in his hands almost before he realized what he was doing. His thoughts fell to his father, Anakin Skywalker, and all the destruction that he had wrought as Darth Vader.

The lightsaber flared to life, and the green glow it cast over the inside of the hut felt sickly and wrong.

One swing and he could stop it. The galaxy would never see the likes of Darth Vader again. It would be safe. One death to save many lives.

The thought passed quickly, and Luke let out a startled breath. How could he think such a thing over one so young? A boy. His own nephew.

He glanced back up to the sleeping padawan's face, only to find his eyes had opened and were staring up at him with horror and rejection.

Before Luke could try to say a word, Ben reached out and pulled his own saber into his hands. Igniting it, he swung it up at his uncle, a man who should have protected him.

"Ben, no!" Luke cried out, as Ben reached out and gathered the Force around him, to aid him, and collapsed the hut down on top of them both.

Rey fell away from the Jedi master, even as she pulled her mind out of his memories.

His eyes were open, staring up at her in shock as she stumbled back, knocking against his table, and sending a box of utensils to the floor. He sat upright in bed.

"What are you doing?" Luke demanded. Had he not see what she had been looking for?

Bem Solo had not done anything to deserve death. Luke Skywalker had drawn his weapon on an innocent man.

"It was you," she breathed. "You created him. Everything you saw came true, but it was your fault."

Luke moved to stand up. He looked angry that she would say such a thing.

"Those memories were not yours to see," he said harshly.

Rey swallowed hard, refusing to back down.

"That's why you are in exile, isn't it." She was doing her best to stare him down, but the event had left her shaken.

"My interference brought about the very things I wanted to prevent. It wasn't going to happen again."

Rey shook her head, but the words Kylo Ren had spoken to her only seemed to buzz about louder in agitation.

"Did you know I had a connection to the Force?" she asked.

Luke stared at her silently for a moment, but that silence was all she needed. He didn't say no, or try to deny it.

Her hands were clenched tightly at her sides as she gritted her teeth at him.

"You locked it away? Didn't let me know about it? That's why you didn't want me to leave. Not because you had any concern for me. You just didn't want me to realize what I am."

At this, Luke began to shake his head and he finally stood up.

"I was searching for this planet when I landed on Jakku. I wasn't looking for more students. When I found you, when I felt that amount of raw power in a one so young, I knew I couldn't just leave you there. I brought you with because I thought I could help you."

Rey cut him off angrily, her voice shaking.

"You didn't help me to control it, you locked it away!" she spat.

"My father and my nephew had power like that and they have torn the galaxy apart!" Luke's voice rose, and now he did stand and come towards her. "I wasn't about to let it happen again, or wait for you to discover your power on your own by accidentally destroying Niima Outpost on a bad day."

Rey looked around the small room, unsure exactly what she was looking for, but feeling something calling to her.

"What are you doing?" Luke demanded as she went to a lidded box on a nearby shelf. She swung it open, ignoring Luke's protests, and inside she found several lightsaber hilts.

Reaching into the box, she ran a finger over one, and the whisper of a memory of a scream filled her mind.

"From the students old enough to build their own sabers. The one's the Ben killed when he burned my temple to the ground. About half of them. The other half left with him."

Rey stared down at the tragic relics, a flicker of pity lighting in her chest.

He'd killed them?

"Why kill the other students?" Rey asked, her own voice growing softer.

Then, she noticed it. A hilt that she recognized, though the color of the metal was different. Closing her fingers around it, she drew the hilt out and saw Luke's face had gone pale when she looked up at him again.

"This was his saber," she said.

The old Jedi nodded.

"He cast it aside and made a new one, after he left the temple."

Rey looked over the dull, silver hilt. "It looks almost the same." Rey's voice was distracted as she remembered the saber that had gotten her off the Finalizer. The color was different, and it had been more crude, but otherwise the design was almost identical.

Her gaze sharpened, and she looked at Luke again.

"You created Kylo Ren. You have to defeat him," she said harshly.

Luke's face closed off once more.

"My role in this is over, Rey. I will not leave Ahch-To."

She wanted to curse and yell at him. Whoever she had thought Luke Skywalker was, it was clearly not the man in front of her now, broken and weary.

"You need to leave," Luke said evenly.

Rey blinked in surprise and shook her head.

"Leave? I can't go. Not without you. You have to come with me."

She knew she was begging, but even broken, he was a Jedi, wasn't he?

Luke looked angry.

"I said 'go,'" he said again, and Rey stood her ground until he moved towards her quickly.

Without thinking, without even realizing she thought of him as a threat, Rey thumbed the lightsaber to life, the cerulean blade becoming a barrier between herself and the Jedi. Just as young Ben Solo had once done.

The sight of it made Luke pause, and he looked at he with brief horror.

What was he thinking? Another child under his care that believed they had to defend themselves from him?

"Go, Rey," he commanded, and then he swept past her and out the door, ignoring the weapon she had levelled at him.

Rey followed him outside, but he vanished into the darkness of the night, not bothering to take a light with him.

Rey could still sense his Force signature as it moved over the hills. He was headed for the uneti tree where the Jedi texts were kept.

She started to move to follow him, the lightsaber was still ignited in her hand, casting a blue glow over the stone pathway at her feet. A whole day and night. Had that time been wasted? How long until the Resistance got to Dantooine? Were they already there? Had the First Order already begun their attack?

Rey had told Poe that if she couldn't convince Luke, she would meet them there. Was it time to leave? She had come to the island looking for a Jedi master. Instead, she would be leaving with disappointment as her only prize. That, and at least a thousand more questions.

As she stood, contemplating, a sense of foreboding swept over her, and then she knew. She had to leave. It was time. She had failed just as Poe had.

"BB-8," she said. The little droid had watched the whole exchange from the doorway without making a sound. She wondered if he had expected success or predicted her failure.

Now, he chirped inquiringly at her. Rey knew her face was pale in the dark. She powered down the saber and, for a moment, was left in complete blackness.

As her eyes adjusted, Rey slipped the saber into her belt. It was still too big, though not so much as the more updated saber of a more grown up Kylo Ren.

"We need to go," she said to the droid, and the two of the dashed for her X-Wing.

Kylo Ren had been to Dantooine before, when he was much younger. A trip with his mother on some diplomatic mission or another. His father had been… somewhere. Ben Solo had never really known where his father was most of the time.

It looked much the same now as it had then, though it felt like a lifetime had passed.

Maybe it had. After all, these were not Ben Solo's eyes that gazed down on the world of rolling plains and wild kath hounds.

General Hux had been practically foaming at the mouth during their journey, wanting to blow the Resistance to bits, but always being just shy of reaching them.

The lightspeed tracking gave them a small window of time before the First Order could catch up, and the rebels had used that time to their advantage.

Now, he stood on the bridge of the Finalizer, and watched the transports and X-Wings making their flights down to the surface. It was much fewer than he had expected to see.

"Sir, your ship is ready."

Kylo Ren thought he was starting to recognize this timid, unlucky soldier. The same one seemed to approach him frequently. High enough in rank to be on the bridge, he must have been low enough on the ladder for the others to coerce him into delivering news to the volatile Ren. It was true he had a habit of unleashing his fury at any unwanted news on anything and anyone that happened to be nearby.

Or, perhaps the small man was simply so without a backbone that he didn't dare to question or delegate the commands. Did his superiors want to see him dead?

"Very well," Kylo replied, his voice calm but intimidating, cycled through the modulator.

He would not be flying his Silencer today. No, he would descend in his command shuttle to lead the First Order troops into the base, alongside Captain Phasma. General Hux would follow only when he was sure that there was no danger. Kylo was sure of that.

He walked briskly, and with purpose, to the hangar. There was more than one on a Star Destroyer this size, but this one… Kylo's eyes drifted over to the line of Walkers along one wall as he walked.

His command shuttle was comforting and familiar in an odd way. He sat in his chair, and waved to the crew to depart. The sooner they reached the surface, the sooner this whole thing could finally be ended. The tiny number of Resistance ships he had seen making the frantic run for the surface would never be able to hold out for long. Not in the ruins of an abandoned Rebel Alliance base.

His shuttle exited the hangar, flanked by half a dozen S/F TIE fighters, and with several more troop drop ships close behind him. If anyone had plans on stopping them, those intentions were quickly put to rest when the Finalizer unleashed a barrage on the Resistance frigate. The shields held for a short time, before failing completely. The ship was decimated by cannon fire. The Resistance troops that had made it to the ground would fare no better. They could hole up in that base all they wanted. In the end, it would do them no good.

The colors on Dantooine seemed more muted as they got closer. Dead ahead was the base. He had seen it before, he realized. And he noticed something else, too. Repairs had been made.

The First Order ships landed in time to see the main doors of the base close.

The fighters in the air fired on the empty passenger transports, and flares of orange flame dotted the newly minted battlefield.

"Orders, sir?" asked one of Kylo's pilots. He had risen from his chair and now stood contemplatively next to the pilot's seats, gazing out the window.

"They aren't going anywhere," he said. "We wait for the Walkers. We'll need them to blow the doors open."

And so, they waited.

It took a little extra time for the Walkers to arrive, but when they did, he had to admire the sight they offered. A line of them, sturdy, towering behemoths. First Order machinery at its finest.

TIE fighters continued to fly circles around the perimeter of the base, searching for any troops that might try and sneak out.

There was nothing to report. They were holed up, tightly and with nowhere to go.

"Fire on the main doors when ready," Kylo commanded.

Ordinarily, it would have been Hux's job to give the orders, but he remained on the Finalizer. The task fell to Kylo, instead.

On the ground, he knew troopers waited, Phasma at their head, ready to storm the base as soon as there was an opening.

The Walkers did not begin firing as one, but once the barrage began, it was an impressive sight. Soon, the base was obscured behind a wall of smoke, and flying debris, tinged red by the canon blasts.

Nothing would be able to withstand it. Anyone that had been outside the doors would be decimated. He watched it go on with quiet dispassion, reaching out through the Force, trying to feel the lives of those inside. It was difficult, but as he touched on those strong enough in the Force for him to pinpoint, he felt snatches of their emotions. To their credit, most were not afraid.

Most, but not all.

And then, he found one Force signature stronger than any of the others, and infinitely more familiar.

General Organa was in there.

As his mind brushed hers, he felt her perception shift toward him. He tried to pull back, to escape her thoughts, before she could send him anything he didn't need.

Sorrow. Determination. Hope. Fear.

She was afraid, But, it was not fear for herself. She was afraid for him.

Not of him. _For_ him.

Kylo drew back into himself. He didn't want to sense any of them anymore. They were doomed to die. Every single one of them. There would be no prisoners.

The Walkers, one by one, ceased their firing. As the dust cleared, the hole that had been blasted and melted into the side of the base was obvious.

The edges had a red glow, even from his distance. The Resistance had not tried to open fire, or defend themselves. He had no doubt they were still in there. Waiting. He knew they were. He could sense them, after all.

On his orders, his shuttle finally landed, and he strode down the lowered boarding ramp with purpose. It was almost eerily silent in the aftermath of the Walkers. The sound of strained metal and crumbling chunks of stone from the damaged base met his ears. There was still no return fire from the Resistance.

Phasma was impossible to miss at the head of the column, prepared to storm the base. Her chrome armor shone ominously with the light from fires on nearby wreckage.

He joined her, and the march began. It was like the world around him narrowed until all that was left was the direct path to the base in front of him.

The ground still smouldered around the ruins of the great doors that had been demolished.

Inside the base, lights flickered on and off, damaged in the attack, though power was still on.

Kylo paused, and heard the troopers behind him come to a halt as well.

"Sweep the base. Kill them all. No prisoners."

The words felt somehow sour.

The girl, the scavenger, Rey. She wasn't here. He hadn't found her as he searched. Still, he felt that other presence, shining brightly in the darkness. A light he had known all his life.

With their orders, the troopers marched on, and Kylo was free to move on his own. It was as he turned down a corridor, towards the light, that he heard the first sounds of blaster fire from back the way he had come.

He would not worry about it. The troopers outnumbered the rebels nearly four to one. And in training there was no comparison to be made at all.

It didn't take long for a wayward fighter to shoot at him.

Kylo had senses the man hiding out behind a control panel in a side room, waiting to ambush some unlucky First Order trooper. Kylo had been prepared to keep walking, to leave him to those troopers.

The bolt that was fired at him changed his mind quickly.

He turned, reaching out and lifting the entire panel, throwing it at the man using the Force, crushing him against the far wall.

The man barely managed to cry out, and then he was gone, his presence in the Force snuffed out.

After that, Kylo decided he needed more stealth. It wasn't that he couldn't have handled any opposition he came across, but haste was necessary. Some instinct told him he needed to reach that light before the others did. He needed to be the one to face her.

Whatever she was doing as the base fell under attack, Leia Organa did not flee. Was she hiding like the others? Lying in wait for an enemy to destroy? Would she fire on him? Would she even recognize who he was at all? He wore his mask. His face was hidden. Could she sense him the way he could sense her?

She was close. Kylo ignited the blade of his saber, steeling himself. Whatever she was doing in that room, she was doing it alone.

He approached the doors. They were closed, but not locked. Something made his hand shake as he reached out to press the button to open them.

" _Ben."_ Han Solo's voice seemed to whisper in his ear. A voice he would never be able to escape.

The doors slid open with a hiss.


	8. Gone

Leia was not waiting for him with a blaser in her hands. She was sitting behind a console, monitoring something.

Her eyes raised when he entered, and he came to a stop without intending to. It was like running into an invisible wall, created by his own traitorous mind and memories.

But, the son of Leia Organa was dead. The man in front of her now was Kylo Ren. And the sentiments of a dead weakling wouldn't stay his hand.

So, then, why couldn't he seem to make himself move?

"Ben."

Leia's voice made him flinch.

"No," he snapped immediately. But, unlike what he had done with Han Solo, he could not form the words to tell her that her son was dead. Murdered at his hand, like so many of the other apprentices that night in the temple.

He felt a gentle brush at his mind. A familiar, welcoming sensation he didn't want. He could feel her sorrow. And yet, despite that, he felt love as well.

Leia could not have seen his face, hidden as it was by the mask, but she smiled slowly, as though discovering something of great importance to her.

"Yes," she said, her voice firm, but patient.

Kylo's hand tightened on his saber. It was true that his mother was strong with the Force, but she had been left largely untrained. Despite that, she had known of his existence long before most other mother's would know they carried a child. The bond she had held with her own unborn baby had been unique. Special.

"Are you going to kill me?" she asked, one eyebrow raised as though in slight amusement, But, even if he hadn't been able to see the clear pain in her eyes, he would have been able to feel it. It was impossible to miss in the Force. She was a woman who had lost almost everything of personal value to her in her life.

"Yes," Kylo said. But, still, he did not move forward, standing across the room from her. Why didn't he move?

"You're taller," she said, and it was such an absurd thing for her to say, given the circumstances, that Kylo found himself blinking in surprise.

"Oh, Ben," Leia's voice grew softer. "You're in so much pain."

He managed to make himself take two steps forward. The memory of Han's death, the look in his father's eyes as they started to fade, stopped him again. Han had looked so shocked. So sorry. Snoke had promised his father's death would bring Kylo clarity, and strength. It should have killed off all the proof that remained of the life of Ben Solo, the same way the Knights of Ren had been hunting down Jedi relics to erase all traces of that order from the memory of the galaxy.

Leia was the last proof of his parentage. Her death would free him.

Han's death had thrown him into turmoil. She was his final test. The last measure, meant to test his resolve.

"It's still not too late," Leia said gently.

Kylo Ren felt something warm on his face. Something hateful, and weak, hidden behind his mask. He hadn't seen his mother in so long. Had not felt her presence in ages. What had he expected? Did he think she would feel cold to him? Had he expected it to be any easier than destroying Han Solo had been?

Something pulled at him. He had felt this tug at his spirit so often that it was wordless, but warm. So different from the promises Snoke had been so fond of whispering into his thoughts.

What would happen if, only for a moment, he listened to the unknown, yet familiar, voice the way he had listened to Snoke?

Without saying anything, Kylo deactivated his saber, and, ever so slowly, he returned it to his belt. He wouldn't kill her, he decided. She could be important, somehow. He would capture her and take her in alive.

As his resolve took shape, Kylo heard the sounds of booted feet marching quickly into the room. He turned to see a squad of six stormtroopers enter from another doorway. Their weapons came up without hesitation.

"No!" Kylo Ren cried out as he whirled on them.

They opened fire on Leia, and he saw her hand come up as she fell down behind the console.

Kylo's own hand came up, reaching out, as the computers exploded in a shower of sparks and billowing smoke.

The weapons were ripped from the troopers hands by the Force.

Turning back to look at the console with wide eyes, he reached out in the Force and felt… Nothing. There was nothing.

Blackness rolled over Kylo's mind.

Dead. Gone.

Just like the troopers would be.

"Sir," one asked, hesitantly. A few had pulled out sidearms and were watching him warily, as he breathed in shallow, frantic breaths.

He gestured again, this time solely at the trooper that had spoken. He meant to grab the man by the throat, to choke the life from him. Instead, he put too much force behind it. The man's neck gave a sickening crunch, and he went limp.

Kylo released him, letting his lifeless body slump to the ground.

The other troopers raised their weapons. Some hesitated. Others did not. Blaster bolts came flying at him. The intimidating hiss and crackle of his saber filled the room as he ignited it again, bringing it to bear against this new onslaught.

He redirected bolts, watching them strike the troopers as he closed in on them, a sweep of his free hand sending a table flying at the five remaining soldiers. It crashed into two of them, sending them stumbling into their teammates.

A second of inattention was all he needed. The first trooper wasn't even facing him when Kylo's saber cut an angry, red line across his neck and back. Another push sent two more flying backwards.

The world was red, as his blade arced and slashed. He heard their confused cries. Calls of desperation, as the Force gripped them and held them steady, waiting.

Something slammed into Kylo's side, driving the air from his lungs. Not taking time to check the nature of the wound, he spun about, finding a trooper that had regained his blaster rifle, standing across the room from him.

Reaching out, Kylo wrapped the trooper in the Force and jerked him up sharply, slamming him against the ceiling, then driving him back down to crash into the floor. He heard his own screams of rage, fueled now by the pain in his side. The trooper lay still on the floor, broken.

Death surrounded him, as he stood in the center of the room. And then, he felt it. A flicker, the faintest flame, guttering, near to going out.

He belted his saber and ran, nearly tripping as he rounded the ruined computer console.

Leia lay on the ground, clothes and skin smoke blacked and singed. She was holding a place in her side, nearly the same place Kylo himself had been shot. Without thinking, he went to his knees at her side. She looked up at him, eyes dim, but not yet unseeing.

"Ben?" Her voice was so quiet. Reaching up, her fingertips touched the cold metal exterior of his mask. Kylo reached up too, finding the releases and tearing it off so he could look at the dying woman with his own eyes. He wanted to speak, but couldn't find the words. They lodged in his throat, choking him. One word he longed to say more than any other.

With the mask gone, Lea reached up again, and this time her hand found his cheek, as Han Solo had done before his own death.

Kylo's eyes started to burn as he watched her.

"You never could lie to me," Leia said, her voice barely a whisper, though a smile still managed to tug the corners of her mouth. "You said Ben was dead, but here you are. My boy." Despite her smile, tears appeared in her eyes. Drops, that were not hers, fell to splash against her cheeks.

Kylo ignored his own tears, bringing his black gloved hand up to cover the one Leia had rested against his cheek.

"Ben," Leia whispered his name again. This was not a general of the Resistance, anymore. This was a woman, bent under the weight of loss. Bent, but never broken. Not even here at the end.

Her hand went limp under his, held to his cheek only by himself, now. Leia's eyes closed. He sat, listening, waiting for her to breathe again, bent close to her, so close that his sweat soaked tangles of raven hair nearly brushed her face.

She remained still and quiet.

"Mother?"

His voice was soft and deep, trembling at a word he had not said in so very, very long. And now it was too late.

"Mother?" he said again, louder this time, and fear saturated his voice.

Still, she did not move. A strangled sound lodged itself in Kylo's throat as he drew her hand away from his face. Looking at it, a thousand memories swept through him.

Leia, reaching out to him when he was barely a toddler, wrapping him in an embrace. Brushing the hair back from his forehead before bed, to plant a kiss between his brows. Her fingers running through his black curls absentmindedly, touseling them as he leaned against her side, listening to her as she spoke with some important dignitary or another.

All of it switched off, like a holovid that had lost its power.

Ever so carefully, Kylo lowered that painfully still hand, and rested it over her stomach, still kneeling, watching her, unsure of what to do. His whole body shook, and it felt like a gaping hole had been ripped into the very center of his being.

Gone. Just… Gone.

Rey had to land her fighter a fair distance from the site of the old Rebel Alliance base. It was heavily under seige, and she had seen on her sensors that the First Order had more than enough manpower to take out those Resistance members that had opted to stay with the main force, rather than being dropped to search out reinforcements.

"BB-8, I want you to stay with the ship. If anyone but Poe or I comes back, you need to hide yourself. Yeah?"

BB-8 gave a low whistle. He agreed to her plan, but wanted her to know that he did not approve of her going off on her own, without knowing exactly what she was walking into.

Rey gave him a quick, appreciative pat to thank him for worrying about her. Then, she checked her belt to make sure she still carried her blaster. It was tucked away securely. And that wasn't the only weapon she had.

Resting her hand over the hilt of Ben Solo's lightsaber, she wondered if it was worth it to carry such a weapon into battle with her. She had no experience, beyond what she had done with Kylo Ren's saber on the Finalizer, and most of that had been luck and guess work.

She decided not to leave it. Better to have it and not need it, she figured. If Kylo Ren's saber had helped her on the Finalizer, maybe Ben Solo's would help her now.

There wasn't much to hide behind on the plains, so Rey found herself dodging from copse of trees to copse of trees. She was using the same method she had used to find Luke on Ahch-To, but this time it was to avoid detection. Reaching out, she found the Force signatures of the living things that dotted the field. The troopers did not shine so brightly as Luke did, but enough for her to reach the outside of the base without running straight into any of them. Finding a door in was more difficult, and in the end, she took out her saber and plunged the blue blade into the wall, hearing it sizzle and melt the metal and stone.

It was slow work. Gritting her teeth, Rey pushed harder, willing the saber to cut faster. How thick were these walls?

Minutes seemed like hours, and the wall crumbled bit by bit, until finally she had a hole large enough for herself to squeeze through. Rey found herself in a small, dark room, lit only by the slow of the lightsaber, and the dim light that made it through the new opening behind her. A storage room, perhaps?

There wasn't time to ponder it. She moved forward, skirting containers and crates, until she had found the doorway. She could feel people moving through the base with malicious intent. The fight had already begun. The Resistance was hard pressed. She could feel their fear, even as she could feel the cold, steely resolve of the troopers that were working to exterminate them.

So many had already died, and she felt each one as it went. Was it because her connection to the Force continued to grow? Did every Force user feel these things? Or, was there a way to control it. To block it out, or dampen it? It distracted her mind, but she searched anyways. She knew who she was looking for. Leia was brighter than any other Force signature. She used her to navigate the base, avoiding all other life, as much as possible. Fighting alone would be dangerous for her, as she was still largely unschooled.

Rey had thought she was growing close, when suddenly Leia's Force signature vanished. Rey stopped, pain blossoming in her chest, like she had been shot with a blaster, or had her heart torn out. Her mind briefly blanked, and she was left reeling in the dark. A cry of anger and pain that wasn't hers seemed to echo in her mind.

"No," Rey whispered.

Before she could make herself move again, a trooper rounded the corner and raised his weapon, firing off a shot without question. The cerulean arc of her lightsaber blade came up, redirecting the bolt off into one of the walls. The next bolt that came at her was deflected as well, but this time, she sent it flying at the trooper himself. It struck him in the chest and he fell with a groan.

Rey looked down at her saber and took a deep breath. She needed to keep going, to find Leia. She took off running again.

It got easier each time she came across a trooper. A swing of the saber, and her path was cleared. She was seeing more and more bodies. Stormtroopers and Resistance soldiers alike. It was hard to tell what the balance of the battle was. There were so many more troopers than there were Resistance. It might have looked like more of them were dead, but with the difference in the numbers on both side...

Rey rounded the corner and came skidding to a halt in the room where she had last felt Leia. Her eyes went wide as she took in the scene in front of her.

Bodies littered the floor, bent and broken. Her mouth hung open, but she did not see Leia. Instead, a dark form rose like a ghost in front of her.

Kylo Ren stood from observing something on the floor, his face dead of emotion. Sweat plastered his hair down against his cheeks and forehead. The gaze that he settled on her sent a shiver down her spine.

"Where is Leia?" she demanded as strongly as she could. Kylo Ren did not answer her, but she saw the subtle flicker of his gaze as it went down to the floor. Rey went cold.

Slowly, waiting for him to make some sort of move, she approached. His movements were deliberate as he backed up, giving her space to come closer, watching her closely, perhaps expecting her to leap, and strike out at him. Instead, Rey circled just far enough around the console to see Leia, lying supine on the ground, motionless.

"Murderer," she breathed, her gaze coming back up to the First Order warlord.

His hand rested on the hilt of his saber. Rey reached out, drawing her blaster from her belt, and turning it on him. Kylo Ren's other hand came up, and he gestured as though to knock the weapon away. Even though he was too far to actually physically touch it, it skittered from her grasp.

"Enough," he said, voice low and ominous. "You are coming with me, by order of Supreme Leader Snoke."

Rey stepped back from him, looking at his hand on his weapon. Her own hand tightened around the saber she had deactivated before entering the room. Ben Solo's lightsaber. She brought it up, in shaking hands, and, at the sight of it, Kylo Ren's cheek twitched.

"Where did you get that?" he hissed, recoiling slightly.

Instead of answering, Rey ignited the blade. He wouldn't take it from her.

"You killed her." She tried to sound fierce, but her voice broke.

Kylo Ren was silent.

Emotions raged in Rey, with an intensity she had never known before. Anger, pain, sorrow. They threatened to sweep over her and leave her drowning.

The nearby console sparked brightly, a harsh, electronic crackle breaking the silence.

Rey charged with a scream.

The red blade of Kylo Ren's lightsaber flared to life, coming up to meet hers. Rey pressed forward, slashing and stabbing with her weapon. All frantic, untaught actions, powered by her fury. All she needed was an opening. Any opening at all. Kylo's own movements were odd, slow, and without life. Distracted.

Rey saw the opening she was waiting for, and stepped in. Red met blue, as Kylo Ren managed to catch her saber on his and push it aside. Then, his fist followed, knocking it out of her hand. It started to fly off to the side, but Rey reached out, the Force snatching it while it was still in the air, and pulling it back to her hand.

Copying his move, and changing it at the same time, Rey's free hand lashed out, sending a wave of Force energy at Kylo Ren. He brought up his arm, and it was as though the Force dissipated on impact, barely ruffling his hair.

"Stop!" he demanded.

Rey leaned back. His arms were wide, his torso open. Her kick caught him in the gut and sent him stumbling back into a wall.

With a hiss of pain, Kylo Ren grabbed at his side for a moment, before reaching out to brace himself against the wall. Rey saw smears of red blood. Another wound? Good.

This time, he tried to use the Force to take her saber from her. Rey gripped it hard against the momentary pull. He wouldn't get it from her again.

Kylo Ren was panting, a grimace twisting his face, as he looked around the room for something else he could use to restrain her.

Rey wouldn't give him the chance. She ran forward, vaulting over a tipped over chair, landing in front of him in a crouch.

His saber came forward. Rey caught the red blade against hers. Twisting it in her hands, she sent it low, and disentangled from him. With another cry of anger, she arced her saber back up, and felt it connect.

Kylo Ren cried out in pain, falling the short ways back to the wall again, and sliding down to the side. His hand came up to clutch at his face where the saber had caught him, running a harsh line up across one cheek, and onto his forehead. His saber extinguished as he lay there, eyes wide, watching her.

Rey ground her teeth together. She never should have spared him that day on the Finalizer, when her powers had first been freed. If she had killed him then, she could have avoided so much grief.

A mistake she wouldn't make twice.

Bringing her saber up, Rey prepared to move towards the fallen man, and end what she should have already ended.

A deep groan from above halted her steps before they had begun, and she looked up. The bombardment of the base had continued, but in her search for Leia, Rey had paid it no mind. A crack appeared in the stone above her, and she watched it open into a gaping hole, dumping rocks and twisted, broken metal into the room, straight at her.

Rey jumped backwards, her last sight of Kylo Ren was his astounded face, as the wall of debris fell between them.

Hiding her mouth and nose against her arm, Rey waited for the wreckage to settle before looking again. Had he been crushed? She reached out, feeling in the Force… And found him. He was still alive, somewhere on the other side of this mess.

"No!" she screamed, and came forward to slash at the ruins with her lightsaber.

It left red lines against the mass, but otherwise it brought her no closer to her goal on the other side.

Rey's eyes were stinging from the dust in the air as she looked back towards the computer console Leia had been behind, only to find it was also hidden under the debris. There would be no digging her out. Rey reached out, trying to lift the rocks. They stirred, and the ceiling above her groaned again. She risked bringing down the rest of the room on her head if she moved anything large.

There was nothing. Nothing here for Rey to stay for. It was time to abandon the base. She needed to try and get others out. She couldn't just leave them here to the same fate.

Turning, Rey fled the room to the continued sounds of muffled groans from the weakened architecture, and distant fighting. Behind her, the Force signature of Kylo Ren glowed like a beacon.


	9. Captives

Rey's senses had gone completely wild in the aftermath of her fight with Kylo Ren. She couldn't stop seeing Leia's still form on the floor, the dead troopers, and the phantom in black who had stood over them all.

Ben's saber was still clutched tightly in her hand, and several times, when she nearly tripped over First Order troopers, they hesitated at the sight of it. Their hesitation gave her just enough time to end their lives as she searched for other survivors. She could feel them, and knew the base wasn't completely lost yet.

Bodies seemed to nearly cover the floor, First Order and Resistance alike. But while she had been attacked by more than one First Order soldier, she hadn't seen a single living Resistance fighter yet.

While she continued to try and navigate the halls, a dark form seemed to practically materialize in front of her without warning.

Rey fell back with a startled shriek. For a heartbeat, she thought the black cloaked figure was Kylo Ren again, but a moment of further study let her know that was not correct, although this man certainly resembled him in stature.

Although she didn't know who this new figure was, Rey wasn't about to stop and ask. She brought up her saber, and was surprised when the blue blade was caught by a crimson one. So, Kylo Ren was not the only one to wield a saber.

"Stop."

The voice that cycled through the mask was calm and unhurried. The opposite of Rey herself.

"Your live capture has been ordered by the Supreme Leader," he explained, though she hadn't asked.

Rey didn't want to hear any of it. Instead, she charged him. Each swing of her saber was easily turned aside. It was almost a reverse of the fight with Kylo Ren, but now _she_ was the one who was off balance, distracted, and stumbling. She still wasn't used to fighting using the saber. Her staff had been used for hand to hand combat, but the balance had been different, and it was larger.

It was too late when she realized she had left herself open. Expecting the man's saber to come arching in to disable her, she was surprised when he spun, instead, and his boot connected with her torso, hard enough to drive the air out of her lungs and send her sprawling.

As she moved to sit up, Rey felt her lightsaber being yanked out of her grasp by the pull of the Force, landing in the outstretched hand of her opponent.

"Surrender," he said, belting her saber, keeping his own poised and at the ready.

Rey was gasping, one hand covering where she had been kicked. Instead of listening, she got to her feet and glanced around for some other weapon to use.

A blaster lay on the floor, not far from her. Rey glanced at the man, but he had made no moves towards her, standing perfectly still instead, waiting for her to make her own choice.

Surrender, or fight?

She dove for the weapon, and before she had even laid a finger on it, she felt herself being driven to the floor by an unseen force. It was quickly replaced by the feeling of a knee in the center of her back, and hands grasping her by the wrists.

Rey bucked, trying to throw him off, but he was heavier than she anticipated. Or, perhaps, he was simply stronger.

The man wasn't even breathing hard after the fight.

Cuffs closed around her wrists, and Rey was hauled to her feet.

"What's this?"

The speaker was out of her line of sight, but as her captor turned, taking her with him, she saw a trooper in chrome armor. A woman, from the voice.

"I was under the impression no prisoners were being taken." the female trooper said in a cool tone.

Rey pulled at her bound wrists, receiving a shake from the dark cloaked man to tell her to stop.

"Orders from the Supreme Leader were to capture her alive. He had a vision of her being here, and I was called in to assist Master Kylo."

The trooper tilted her head to the side as though she was assessing Rey.

"Lucky you found her before I did," she decided.

Rey gritted her teeth together.

"Kylo Ren is being escorted to his ship. It looks like he was wounded in battle. Likely thanks to your friend there."

Rey felt the grip on her arm tighten ever so slightly.

"Very well," the man said after a somewhat lengthy pause. "I shall take her to the Finalizer, and meet Master Kylo on board."

Without further delay, Rey was being dragged through the base, her feet barely keeping beneath her. They hadn't quite made it out, when an explosion shook the ground. The man didn't say anything, bracing himself against one wall, his grip keeping Rey upright. She could feel his awareness stretch out in the Force, and after a moment she did the same, though she wasn't sure what she was looking for.

Something was happening outside.

"You," the man called to a trooper who was jogging by. "What's happening?" he demanded. The trooper paused abruptly.

"Several ships have come out of hyperspace above the planet. It appears to be allies of the Resistance. They are taking advantage of catching us by surprise. We've already taken heavy damage."

As soon as he was finished speaking, the trooper continued to hurry down the hall. Another tremor ran through their surroundings, and dust rained down.

"Kriff," the man swore under his breath. His grip on her did not lessen, and he resumed dragging her along.

Outside, things were even more chaotic. A full on dog fight was taking place in the air, between enemy TIE fighters and Resistance X-wings. Several of the imposing First Order walkers were in flaming ruins on the ground, bombed by the Resistance ships.

Rey dug in her heels, determined not to be drug away. If she could just stall long enough, she might get help. When it became apparent that she was done walking, her captor stopped long enough to toss her over his shoulder, while she shouted and kicked.

His pace picked up, and the light dimmed as they entered a ship. She felt herself being dropped to the ground, and her butt connected with the metal floor. Looking around, she saw stormtroopers. It was a troop transport. No sooner had she realized this, than the ramp began to shut, and she heard the whine of the engines powering up. With a shudder, they lifted from the ground.

Rey's heart was hammering in her chest, and her blood pounded in her ears.

They had her.

Closing her eyes, she tried to take deep, calming breaths. It wasn't the first time. They had caught her before, and she had managed to escape. She could do it again.

Thoughts of her previous capture had her mind turning to Kylo Ren. He had survived. He was already on his way back for medical treatment, though she didn't think any of the injuries he had sustained had been life threatening.

As the ship made its way off world and to the Finalizer, Rey tried to keep calm. Fear and anger roiled inside her, threatening to turn to panic if she gave them a chance. Explosions as they were fired on rocked them a few times, and she would close her eyes, trying to sense if this was the end.

Eventually, the shaking stopped. The sounds of blaster shots stopped. Her captor had remained quiet throughout it all, leaving her with her thoughts, though she had looked at him a few times as he stood above her.

The ship landed with a sharp jolt, and moments later she was once again on her feet, being dragged forward, as the boarding ramp was lowered.

Although she had only walked the route once, Rey recognized the halls that led to the detention level. As she was ushered along, they passed the circular computer station where she and Poe had acquired their unwilling guide to BB-8. Her gaze met that of the soldier they had shot in the leg. His eyes went wide and then narrowed as she passed, before an unpleasant, smug look took control of his features.

Her escape had only lasted a few days, she realized.

"Welcome back," he said.

The restraints on her wrists were removed, and Rey was shoved unceremoniously into a cell, and the door shut behind her before she could even turn to face the masked man. She hadn't been restrained this time. Apparently there wasn't going to be an interrogation.

Rey pulled the Force close, and reached out with it, trying to get a better handle on her surroundings. There weren't many others in the surrounding cells. Rey walked to the door. Could the Force help her to pick a lock? Probably, but she didn't know how to work it that well.

Going back to the low bench built into the far wall, Rey sank down onto it, suddenly feeling very heavy and tired. For now, she would have to wait. An opportunity would present itself eventually, and when it did she would be ready.

Kylo's eyes were squeezed tightly closed in concentration as the medical droid worked to clean and mend the blaster shot he had taken at the hands of his own men. The scene was replaying over and over again in his mind.

His mother's death.

All of it sent him into a pit of anger where the dark side roiled like some tentacled creature.

The slash across his face had already been dealt with, but it continued to occupy his thoughts as well.

Rey.

She had overwhelmed him, might have even killed him, if the base hadn't begun to break down. How ironic that the interruption of the Resistance allies had been the thing to save him.

Waving a hand in agitation, Kylo brushed away the droid that was working on his face. The pain was still very present. Yet, he knew that something more painful awaited him.

Snoke needed to be contacted. For this, Kylo did not intend to use the large audience chamber on the Finalizer. He would accept the transmission in his own chambers. A place where he could accept the inevitable berating with some amount of secrecy. Nobody else in the First Order would know his turmoil, and he wished he could keep it from Snoke as well. But, his master had a way or seeing into his thoughts. It was impossible to keep anything from him. To try just made the punishment worse.

Rising from his chair in the medlab, with barely concealed reluctance, Kylo made his way back to his chambers.

Something else distracted him as well.

She was on board. He could feel this. At first, he had wondered if it was a trick of the mind, until his knight had found him and told him of the events that had occured in the Resistance base after he was removed from it.. The news was met with mixed emotions.

On the one hand, he was glad of her capture. On the other, it galled him that he had not been the one to do it, that she had defeated him in combat, and might have even killed him if the ceiling hadn't collapsed.

Kylo wanted to blame the death of Leia for his downfall in battle, but when he tried to think of her, he was hit with an explosion of pain in some hollow, empty part of himself. He couldn't think of her yet, either for good or ill.

The door to his chambers had barely hissed shut behind him when the little red light on Kylo's comm station began blinking. He stood in front of it, staring. The longer he put it off, the worse it would be, he reminded himself.

Kylo knelt down and used the Force to click the button an accept the call.

Snoke was not so ominous in here. The holoprojector wasn't as large. He was not even quite as big as he was in person. However, this did nothing to diminish the weight of his angry stare as it burned into Kylo.

Kylo didn't look up.

"Bested twice," Snoke began, and there was mingled anger and disbelief in his tone. Kylo wanted to say something to defend himself, but anything he tried would sound like an excuse, so he simply stayed silent, trying not to be crushed under the weight of Snoke's disappointment.

"And what happened with your mother," Snoke said, and the disbelief had vanished, while the anger sharpened into simmering rage.

"Even after what happened with your father, you were not immune to the call of the light. Her words had begun to sway you towards traitorous intent."

"No, Supreme Leader," he said. "I would never betray the First Order, or you, or the Dark Side."

Snoke did not look impressed by the declaration of fealty. His eyebrows drew down, and his mangled face twisted into a sneer.

"If not for your attempt to capture the girl when all was said and done, your actions towards the General, and towards those troopers, would have branded you a traitor, and you would have been brought to me to deal with. As it is…" He trailed off, staring down at his kneeling apprentice. "The girl is onboard. You will bring her to me, as I originally commanded. And when you do, I will find a suitable punishment for your transgression. You are weak and broken." Snoke's voice had dropped in volume as he looked at Kylo. "Only with fire can you be reforged into something whole and strong."

The transmission ended so suddenly that Kylo almost wondered if the machine had malfunctioned and cut it off prematurely. He stayed where he was, kneeling on the floor. He had not looked up once in the entire exchange, even when he had tried to defend himself. His black hair hung down like a curtain around his face, blocking out the rest of the galaxy, as Snoke's words repeated in his head.

Traitor. Weak. Broken.

Kylo was no traitor. The stormtroopers had stuck their blasters into something that had nothing to do with them, and they had paid for it accordingly. Leia's words had been tempting, but he hadn't given in to them, had he? He was going to take her into custody, not join her. He would not go back to the light. There was no place for him there. There never had been. How could he be tempted to go back to a place he never should have been in the first place?

Kylo did not want to rise. He did not want to face it yet. Orders would have already been given. The Finalizer would already be on its way to rendezvous with the Supremacy. It wouldn't be long before the girl was given over to Snoke.

Somehow the thought unnerved him, and Kylo swallowed hard.

The turmoil in him was so great that he didn't feel the fluctuation in the Force that should have heralded Rey's arrival.

"Murderer!"

His head snapped up at the sound of her voice, and he found her standing in front of him, almost exactly where Snoke's projection had been.

Her skin was streaked with dirt and seat, her hands clenched at her sides as she stared fiercely at him. Through the grime on her face, two lines had been washed away by tears.

She had been weeping.

When Kylo did not try and rise to his feet, or say anything to defend himself, Rey took a step closer. As per usual, the lights in Kylo's quarters were dim, and he was grateful that she would have a hard time seeing him in any detail.

The lights in her room, her cell, were bright, letting him see her oh-so-clearly.

"Murderer!" she snapped again, and this time a barely detectable shudder ran through him at the word.

"The death of your father wasn't enough?" Rey demanded. "You had to take your mother too? Did she raise a hand to stop you?" As she spoke, tears had begun to well up in Rey's eyes again.

"No," Kylo said. The memory of the hand Leia had placed against his cheek as she lay dying ran through his head. A hand he had been desperate to keep there. A precious reminder of something in him that he had buried.

"You killed a woman that loved you. Did it make you feel stronger? Did it give you the clarity you sought?" she spat.

Kylo continued to stare at her. She was fierce. It took him a moment to remember that she was a captive on board this ship. No amount of bluster would change the fact that she had no authority. No power. Not over him, and not over anyone else.

If she had so little power, what did it matter if she knew the truth?

"I didn't kill her," he said.

Rey scoffed loudly, and he realized that not only did he want her to know, but he wanted her to believe him.

"I saw you standing over her. Nobody else was in the room that could have done it," she insisted.

Kylo could feel the surety she had in her words. What he said did nothing to sway her from what she thought she knew.

"I was with her when she died," he allowed. "But I didn't kill her."

He was holding her gaze, refusing to look away. Kylo knew that if she looked hard enough, she would see the truth, and sense it in him.

Rey's eyes stayed on his, refusing to look away. She did not want to let him win this perceived battle of wills.

Then, as she searched his gaze, something changed in hers. A seed of doubt. The faintest glimmer of worry that she was wrong. Quickly, Rey tried to blink away these new thoughts.

"Liar," she said, but she sounded less sure now.

Kylo didn't say anything. That change in her tone told him that she had at least entertained the idea of doubt.

And, once again, she vanished from in front of him.

In the silence that followed, Kylo felt an odd sensation creep in. It took him a moment to place it. He was so used to it that only now, when he had been given a moment without it, that he felt it sweeping back in at all.

Kylo was alone. And he felt it.

It was absurd, but when she left, he felt oddly bereft, as though he had just lost something essential. Something he had had once upon a time, that the loneliness had moved in to replace.

Kylo remembered the information he had gained during his interrogation with her. They were kindred spirits. Children of loneliness. Rey was not so different from Kylo himself.

Did he want her to be like him?

" _Ben?"_

The gentle whisper in his ear was not that of his father. This voice was familiar, gentle, and patient. Humor tinged with authority. Love.

" _It's alright, Ben."_

He sucked in a sharp breath.

Kylo knew he should throw up a mental barrier to keep her out, and keep her away. The darkside could be gathered to him like a shield against the light.

Instead, unseen by anyone else, Kylo Ren sank down onto a nearby couch, and buried his face in his hands.


	10. Not Too Late

Standing in the middle of her cell, Rey tried to sort through the encounter she had just had with Kylo Ren. She had been ready to say every righteous thing on her mind. If nobody else would do it, she would be the one to hold him accountable for the horrors he had committed.

When he had said he was not the one to have killed Leia, she hadn't wanted to believe him. But she could feel the truth of what he had said. Beyond even that, she could feel his grief. It surrounded him like a shroud.

Rey still hadn't figured out what had bound them together, or what it was that sparked these meetings here they could see each other, no matter where their physical bodies were. It wasn't exactly a convenient phenomenon.

Shaking her head, Rey reminded herself that she didn't have time to puzzle it out now.

Walking up to the door, she put a hand against it, looking at the keypad set into the wall, wishing she knew a way to divine the code. Then it struck her. Maybe she did know a way.

Closing her eyes, Rey tried to reach out. She needed to find someone working there that might know the code. She could look into their minds and take it. Or at least she hoped she would be able to.

Rey hadn't been trying for very long when someone banged on the door, jarring her out of her thoughts and breaking her focus. Watching the door, she waited to see if it would open. Nothing happened.

With a puzzled expression, she closed her eyes once again, reached out, and-

BANG!

Her eyes flew open, and she scowled before her hand came up to bang back on the door. Very faintly she heard someone say something.

"What?" she muttered to herself.

The door in front of her opened with a hiss, and she once again found herself face to face with the masked man that had captured her on Dantooine. He stood, tall and still as a statue for a moment, then bent down slightly to put himself more on eye level with her, though the gesture was lost on Rey, as she couldn't see his face.

"Stop," he said.

Rey blinked.

Had he really opened the door just to tell her to stop?

"No," she replied.

The man returned to his full height, and even through the mask she could feel his eyes on her.

"I'm here to make sure you don't leave this cell. If you won't stop on your own, I'll have to help you stop," he said, voice still calm.

Rey scoffed.

"Just how long do you think you can hold me?" she asked.

The man tilted his head to one side, giving himself a contemplative stance.

"It shouldn't be long. A few hours, maybe, and we will meet up with the Supremacy to deliver you to Supreme Leader Snoke."

He recited it like it was a well practiced speech. Rey looked over him again, and spotted something at his hip. Her saber was there, belted on the opposite side from his own.

Seeing the change in her expression, the man looked down at what had caught her attention. One of his hands fell to rest on the hilt.

"I know what this is," he said. "And I don't think Master Kylo would be thrilled to see it," he explained.

Rey's nose wrinkled.

"Why don't you just destroy it, then?" she asked.

"Because, I don't know Snoke's plans for you," he replied. "If he wishes to take you on as an apprentice, or for you to join our ranks, you may need this saber."

Rey shook her head at the thought. Join their ranks? Train under Snoke?

There was little chance of that.

When it became apparent that she had nothing else to say, no reaction to his comment, he put his hand on the door controls, pausing long enough for her to have one more chance to say something if she wanted.

She remained silent, and with a nod, the man shut the door to her cell once again.

Alone, Rey tried to think of what she should do. As she sat in silence, she felt something edging in on her consciousness. The Force signature was dim, as though in an attempt to hide it from her.

With a sigh, Rey returned to the metal bench on the wall and sank down heavily. She could have tried any number of things on the man when he had opened the door to her cell. She could have used the Force to attack him, or to take back her saber. But he had more training, and had already defeated her once. The element of surprise would only help her so much if she couldn't land an incapacitating blow. And even if she could, how would she have gotten off the ship again? No doubt the guards would be more careful this time. The Force was a powerful ally, as she was quickly learning, but without more knowledge on how to wield it against the sheer number of enemies onboard, she doubted she would manage a second miraculous escape.

So, Rey sat, crossing her legs and taking a meditative stance, letting the ship, and the First Order fall away from her. Finding a center of calm, she immersed herself in it, trying to rest as best she could, despite her nerves.

Time passed quickly and slowly all at once. It felt like she would sit in that cell alone forever, but at the same time it was as if she blinked and felt the subtle shudder as the ship dropped back out of lightspeed.

Fear made Rey's heart stutter, and she desperately wished to be unafraid.

"There is peace," she whispered. "Peace."

Something was drawing nearer. Some darkness that left a foul taste in her mouth, and a jittery feeling in her gut. Outside the door of her cell, she could still feel the masked man standing guard diligently, unmoving. And…

Rey sighed deeply, trying to gather her mind back to herself. It appeared that she was not the only one who was afraid.

The knowledge that Kylo Ren also sat in fear was confusing. What did he have to be afraid of? It had only been a few hours since they had last spoken, and he had told her that he hadn't been the one to kill his mother.

As much as Rey didn't want to believe he was telling the truth, she knew he was. Not only that, but he had felt remorseful over her death. Like he wished for a different outcome.

Rey found she was curious. If she tried to reach out to him…

Kylo was sitting on the bench beside her as though he had been there the whole time. The only sign otherwise was the level of shock on his face when he saw her.

Rey managed not to visibly flinch, though her muscles twitched, demanding she stand up and move away from him.

 _He can't touch me._ She mentally reminded herself, making her eyes search his face.

As his own surprise faded, Kylo had gone back to looking at the floor, unwilling to meet her gaze.

"You didn't kill your mother?" she asked.

Kylo shook his head.

"No, I didn't kill my mother," he said.

Rey continued to stare at him.

"But you've killed others. So many others. And you killed your father." Rey looked puzzled, unable to wrap her head around it. "Why?"

Kylo seemed to consider the question, sitting up a little more, though he still wasn't looking at her.

"Power always has a price. I did what I had to do."

Rey was shaking her head before he had even finished the statement.

"Nobody _has_ to do anything," she said. "There is always a choice."

Kylo looked so unassured.

Rey thought back to the man who had interrogated her when she had first been captured with Poe. The condescending way he had spoken, towering over her, calling her a mouse. There had been confidence in his actions, making him seem almost cocky. This was not that man anymore.

Had the persona she had seen that day been a guise? Was the man she saw now Ben, beneath the stifling mask of Kylo Ren? The son of Leia. A lost, lonely creature, unsure of the path he was meant to take?

There was conflict in him. Rey could sense it. A battle between light he could not achieve, and darkness he hoped could take its place. She thought of the dream she had seen through Luke, of Ben Solo, the night he thought his uncle had given up on him. The night Ben Solo had given up on himself, seeking out the darkness that everyone feared, and told him he should fear as well. Darkness was a part of him already, though. They had been telling him he should fear part of himself.

Without realizing it, Rey's gaze had softened ever so slightly.

"It's not too late," she said gently.

Kylo Ren flinched.

Those words. Kylo couldn't believe he was hearing them again. Especially not from the scavenger girl. His father had said the same thing before the end, and then his mother had tried to tell him as well. Now, again, someone was telling him he could change his path.

Kylo thought about what those words meant.

Not too late.

"Not too late for what?" he asked, and now his tone had taken on a mocking edge it hadn't had only moments before.

"Not too late to change," Rey said.

She sounded so sure of it. Where there had been hostility, there was now patience. This alteration of her treatment towards him threw him off, breaking the bitter, mocking edge he had tried to raise.

Kylo's eyes flickered up, wanting to look at her face, hoping that, in it, he would see that she actually believed what she was telling him.

To change. What would he change? What course could he possibly take? The Republic was gone, and the Resistance would doubtlessly have him killed for his war crimes. Kylo didn't know what to say. Did he believe her? Was there time? Did he truly want to change, even if there was?

The scavenger, Rey, hadn't moved while he had this internal debate. Kylo knew he didn't want to go back to who he had been before. He wouldn't go back to fearing the dark… But did he want to stay where he was?

An answer had not made itself plain, when Rey reached out towards him. Memories of the blaster bolt she had fired at him passed across his mind. How it had gone right through. He was sure her hand would do the same, but, as her her fingertips brushed his arm, he realized he could _feel_ it.

Kylo sucked in a sharp breath, which was echoed by Rey. It, apparently, hadn't occurred to her that this was a possibility either.

Rather than draw back, she settled her hand more firmly against his forearm. The gesture was meant to be a comforting one, but all he could feel was shock.

Slowly, like she might snatch herself away, Kylo brought up his hand, pulling his glove off. If this worked, he wanted to know he was feeling it with his skin, not some trick through the leather of his glove.

Still half expecting to pass right through her, he reached out, his palm pressing down over the back of her hand.

The breath nearly went out of him.

He could feel her.

Kylo's hand stopped over hers as though she was truly there. As if she had really reached out to him in his moment of turmoil to offer a comforting touch. The girl that was his enemy.

Without warning, something dark crashed over Kylo, and then his hand fell down to his own arm.

She was gone, and Kylo knew why. The dark presence that had split them apart was well known to him.

Snoke was ready. It was time for the girl to be delivered to him.

Swallowing hard, he reached down to pick up the glove he had discarded, easing it back onto his hand, looking at his palm.

Rising from his chair with a resolute sigh, he glanced around his quarters. In front of him, on a pedestal, was his most prized possession. The mask of his grandfather, Darth Vader, another figure who had struggled against the light. The dark lord's greatest achievements had been overshadowed by a moment of weakness and sentiment, wherein he had killed Emperor Palpatine to save his son, Kylo's uncle, Luke Skywalker.

It dawned on Kylo. Perhaps this was his true test. Not facing his father, and not facing his mother.

The girl was trying to pull him away from his purpose. His destiny.

Clenching his fist, Kylo steeled himself. If this was a test, he would not fail it. He would not be distracted from his course.

With one more look at the helmet, Kylo walked from the room, leaving his chambers behind, heading for the detention center.

Rey was sitting in silent contemplation when the door opened and Kylo Ren strode in.

As she looked at him, she wondered if she should still be calling him Kylo Ren. The more she thought about it, the more certain she was that she had caught a glimpse of Ben Solo. He was still in there, fighting to keep from being devoured by the darkness.

Standing, Rey waited for him to approach, keeping her eyes on his face, searching.

The features of that face were now calm, and collected. Not the same confused expression she had seen only a short while ago.

"Do you want me to accompany you, Master Kylo?" the man who had been guarding her asked.

Kylo seemed to think about the question for a moment before shaking his head.

"No. You've done well. You are dismissed for now," he said.

With a nod, the man left the cell, casting a final glance back at the pair of them.

"What's happening?" Rey asked.

Glancing over Kylo Ren, she noticed something else. He had his familiar, black, cross guard saber, belted in its usual place on his hip. But there, on the opposite side, was the plain silver hilt of Ben Solo's saber. The guard must have given it to him outside, before they had opened the door.

"It's as I said before. You are to be taken to the Supreme Leader, and he will decide what is to be done with you."

As he said this, Kylo produced a pair of binder cuffs from his belt, holding them out towards her.

Rey looked at the cuffs, and swallowed hard.

"You don't have to take me to him," she said gently, though she held out her hands so he could restrain her. "Remember, everything is a choice."

She wasn't sure what she had expected when he reached out to put the bindercuffs on her. His hands were gloved again, but despite the strength she knew they held, his touch was methodical and careful, even gentle. He tightened the cuffs only as much as was needed, but not enough to be painful. Did he linger at her wrists?

"It is a choice," he agreed. "And I choose not to disobey my master."

Placing his hand low on her upper arm, Kylo guided Rey out of her cell.

As they walked, Rey tried to gather her thoughts.

It had been Ben. She knew what she had seen. But how could she break through to him again?

Rey was surprised there was no additional escort.

Only him.

Did he think she was so small a threat? Or, perhaps he trusted her not to try and run.

"Why didn't you kill your mother?" she asked, keeping her voice low so nobody passing them in the halls could heat her. "You killed your father. Why not Leia?"

Kylo remained silent, so much so that she didn't think he was going to answer the query.

"I was going to take her in alive because she could have been used against the Resistance. Killing her would have been a waste."

Without warning, something washed over Rey. Knowledge.

"You're lying."

There was truth to what he said, but it wasn't the real reason. Maybe it was the reason he had told himself when it had come time to make a decision, but it wasn't the real reason, and deep down he knew that.

Kylo glanced at her, but did not stop walking.

"It was a moment of weakness. Even a monster hesitates in the face of killing its mother."

Rey remembered calling him a monster. He was using her own words, agreeing with them.

"It wasn't weakness," Rey pressed. "You didn't want to kill her." She paused, as though a question had just occurred to her. "Did you want to kill your father, or did you just do it because you were told to?" she asked.

Kylo's face remained calm, like the words didn't reach him, but Rey knew better. She could feel the truth of his emotions as they roiled under the surface of his composure.

"I was told to kill him because it needed to be done to give me strength. Just as this needs to be done."

The passed through the docking port from the Finalizer to the Supremacy.

Rey fell into silence. Kylo seemed to be trying so hard not to think about what was happening. Did he truly think this was just another test set before him?

"Not everyone who tells you that you can change your path is here as a test," she finally said, but that seemed to be the end of the conversation.

Kylo no longer spoke. His eyes were fixed into the distance, as he continued to lead her firmly forward.

The presence of the dark side was stifling here. It made her stomach roll itself into a nervous knot. If Kylo would not speak to her, she could direct her attention elsewhere.

Rey focused on taking deep, meditative breaths as their steps led her ever onward. In the back of her mind, she became aware of a voice whispering. It was sinister. Indistinct, but also insistent.

Refusing to show her fears on her face, Ret kept her features calm, almost serene. It occurred to her that, despite both of them being in turmoil, neither Kylo, nor herself, wanted the other to know. And, yet, she knew anyways, and she suspected he knew the same about her.

Time seemed to speed up, despite the steady marching of their feet, and Rey felt the dark whispers coming to a crescendo as the pair boarded an elevator.

"Ben," she said, turning to look at him when the whispers in the silence grew unbearable. At first, she wasn't sure of the reason for his visible flinch at the sound of her voice.

She doubted she had startled him. Then, she realized what she had called him. The name had slipped out unbidden. Had she ever called him anything but murderer or monster? Had she ever called his attention to her by speaking the name "Kylo Ren?" He had been Kylo Ren in her mind, at least until now.

"That's not my name," he replied, his voice cool.

Rey swallowed hard, unsure of what she had planned to say to him when she had spoken his name. She just needed to try one more time to change his mind.

"It was the name your mother gave you. You were never anyone but 'Ben' to her. She knew you could come back. And so do I, and so do you," she said.

He was looking at her again, dark, haunted eyes scouring her face, searching it for hidden intent, or trickery. Did she imagine the flicker of confusion in them, when he found none of that?

There was genuine hope, where only hours ago she had held malice and contempt. Hadn't he been the one that had wanted her to know he wasn't what she thought he was?

"You didn't need to tell me that you didn't kill Leia," Rey continued. "Why did you want me to know? What purpose could it have served?" she asked.

Kylo bit his lip for a moment, swallowing hard, his facade fracturing for a heartbeat.

"Tell me," Rey said, more insistently. "Tell me why you wanted me to know you hadn't killed Leia."

Kylo continued to look down at her. She could see his jaw was clenched, lips trembling, shoulders rigid. What was he fighting so hard against?

Rey refused to break eye contact.

Kylo's lips parted.

"I-" He started to speak, and the lift came to a shuddering halt, the doors opening behind her.

Rey immediately felt someone regarding her intently.

Rather than finish what he had been about to say, Kylo took her once again by the arm, turning her, guiding her off the elevator, to meet whatever darkness lay in wait.


	11. Into The Fire

Red.

The first thing that registered to Rey's eyes was how much _red_ there was in this room. The second thought was that it was massive. The scale of the room was nearly ridiculous, she thought, as she was lead forward across the smooth, obsidian floor. Her mind was screaming to her that there was danger here, though that was plain enough to her eyes.

Set at the far end of the room was a massive throne. Seated in it was a being that she could not place the species of. As they drew closer, Rey was able to pick out the details of him. Garbed in a robe of glittering, golden cloth, his appearance of grandeur was offset by the distraction of his mutilated face. The thing's skull bore a deep gouge, accompanied by a gaping hole in his cheek, and a twisted jaw.

As they approached, the thing, the Supreme Leader, Rey assumed, remained silent. But the closer she got, the more obvious the smug grin he wore became. Finally, Kylo stopped. His grip halted Rey as well, and he released her to kneel, bowing his head in reverence. Rey kept her steely eyes on the Supreme Leader.

"At least we meet," he said, sitting up a little taller on his throne. "Do you know who I am, Child?"

Rey swallowed hard. She didn't want to answer him, yet there was a terrifying, yet familiar feeling on the fringes of her mind. Rey knew this feeling from the time Kylo had attempted to interrogate her. The Supreme Leader was asking her questions now, but if she refused to answer him, he would attempt to invade her mind and search the answers out for himself.

Despite the damage done to his physical body, the sensation of power radiating off of this being was impossible to miss. If he chose to delve into her head, she doubted she would be able to stop him.

"The Supreme Leader of the First Order," she said, forcing strength into her voice.

The Supreme Leader chuckled. "That is correct. Now, what is your name?"

His question puzzled her. Why had she been brought here? What plans did he have? She remembered her guard saying he suspected Rey would be asked to join their ranks.

"Rey." Hesitation still bounced around inside her head, but she leveled a defiant stare at the gold robed figure.

Snoke chuckled. "You may not be a Jedi, but you have the pride of one, and it will be your downfall just as it has been theirs."

Suddenly, his eyes darkened, and Rey felt an invisible hand clamp tightly around her, holding her tightly in place. It happened so suddenly -so _seamlessly_ \- she had no chance to try and escape it. Her feet left the floor as she was lifted into the air, pulled by an unseen tether. The looming continence of Snoke was even more unsettling up close.

Gritting her teeth, Rey struggled to keep her face from reflecting her growing concerns, even as she mounted a mental defense, trying to fight her way free of the grip of the Force. It was strength unlike any she had ever felt before. Behind her, she knew Kylo still knelt on the floor. He was trying to shut her out, perhaps knowing what would come next.

Snoke reached out with one hand and grasped her jaw firmly, staring at her with cold, calculating eyes. Pain made her vision flash white. Rey cried out. There had been no warning. No questions. It went on for what felt like an eternity. When the lance of pain ebbed, her vision came back, though there were spots dancing around in her peripherie.

"Luke Skywalker's ward," Snoke laughed incredulously. "A detail my apprentice neglected to mention." His eyes slid past her, no doubt landing on the kneeling form of Kylo. "It seems there were a great many things he neglected to mention." His focus returned to Rey. "Where is he?"

Rey's mouth set in a stubborn line, and her eyes screamed her denial to help him. All the while, she desperately tried to fight her way free, but it was in vain. She might as well have been trying to free herself from binding chains. Worse, even. At least she would have been able to see chains. With this, there was only Snoke, and his iron will and mastery of the Force against her. She, who had only known she could control it in any capacity for a few days.

Again, without warning, pain seemed to split her skull down the middle, digging even deeper than before. This time, Rey didn't simply cry out. She screamed. When the pain finally receded again, she felt herself falling to the floor. She was in agony. The pain had spread through her entire body, and she felt like she had been ripped apart as Snoke probed for information. Her throat was raw from screaming, and she struggled to find breath. Despite all of it, she flexed her muscles and found she was able to move her limbs again. Slowly, she became aware that Snoke was speaking, registering his words late.

"We have searched for so long, and now, thanks to your childish rebellion, we finally know the location of the Last Jedi." His grin stretched from ear to ear, malicious. "Foolish child. You have no idea what you've done."

Rey looked behind her. Kylo didn't seem to have moved through the entire interrogation. His eyes were firmly rooted to the floor; his body was rigid. She wanted to call out to him. She knew what she had seen before. He was remorseful. Unsure of the path he had chosen.

"You think he is going to help you?" Snoke asked.

Whether he guessed it from her looking at him, or if he was still plugged into her mind, Rey didn't know. She struggled to her feet, breathing hard, earning more laughter from the Supreme Leader.

"So defiant." His voice dripped with contempt.

The Force struck Rey in the chest, sending her flying back, dragging her across the floor. She rolled onto her stomach and looked up, finding herself face to face with Kylo. He had finally managed to close himself off to her. Rey couldn't sense his emotions anymore. His expression was cold, nostrils flaring with each harsh exhale.

"Ben?" she asked, voice shaking.

His dark eyes flickered to hers, but she didn't see anything in them.

"Rise, Kylo Ren." Snoke's voice echoed through the open room.

Keeping his eyes locked on Rey's, he did as his master commanded, rising to his full, towering height. Rey started to push herself up, but was slammed back to the floor. Her chin struck the ground and she bit her tongue, tasting blood.

"Kill her."

The order was such a simple one. Unembellished. Unexplained. Just those two words.

Kylo's gaze rose, leaving her, gazing at Snoke instead.

"She will be your final test. The opportunity to kill your mother was taken from you. The scavenger will be your replacement."

Kylo remained frozen in place.

Snoke continued, his voice growing a little more taut. "I've felt your growing connection to her; you're attachment. Your only loyalty can be to the dark side."

Kylo continued to say nothing, but his hand fell to his saber, belted on his hip.

"No," Snoke said. "Use the saber of Ben Solo. Strike her down with it. Prove to me once and for all that he is truly dead."

Obediently, Kylo's hand moved to his old saber, unbelting it and holding it in his hand. His brown orbs were locked onto it, and the muscles in his cheek twitched. Rey could still taste blood in her mouth. She couldn't look away from him, watching for any sign of his intent.

The blade activated, casting a blue glow over her; the hum of it filled her ears. She couldn't talk anymore. There was nothing left to say. Whatever choice was going to be made, she had said all she could to sway him. But, if he was going to kill her, he would have to look her in the eyes as he did it. Rey stared up at him, her jaw set stubbornly. Kylo's eyes met hers. He rolled his wrist, spinning the lightsaber about experimentally. Sharply, he pulled it up, both hands wrapping around the hilt, holding it high, ready to bring it down. Rey didn't flinch. Kylo did.

 _Ben_ did.

He exhaled sharply, as though something had struck him in the gut; a sharp gasp, accentuated by the slightest shaking of his head. Strands of black hair fell in front of his eyes as he looked at her. Rey couldn't help but wonder what it was that he was seeing. Was it her, anymore? Or did he see someone else kneeling on the floor in front of him? Did he see anything at all? Or was it all lost to his ongoing internal battle. Despite her earlier assertions that he would have to make his own choice, she was tempted to reach out to him, or to say his name again. His proper name.

"You hesitate," Snoke said. His voice was level and displeased.

Kylo didn't move, save to say a single word.

"No."

Rey couldn't see Snoke, but she could imagine the ugly twist of a scowl shaping his mangled features.

"No?" he asked.

"No," Kylo repeated, and his eyes lifted off of Rey, settling once more on his master. "I won't do this."

Rey heard the sharp intake of breath from Snoke, though she wasn't sure if it was a gasp or a hiss.

"Think carefully about your next words," he warned. "They will decide your fate."

Kylo hadn't deactivated the saber, holding it tightly in his fist, so close Rey could hear the crinkle of his leather gloves.

"She is of more use to us alive. I won't kill her."

He had told Rey something similar about his plans for his mother. He had been unwilling to kill her, instead planning on taking her captive in an attempt to save her life. Just as he was doing now for Rey.

"Pathetic fool," Snoke growled.

Kylo's body went rigid. Rey felt the fluctuation in the Force as Snoke manipulated it again, grasping his former apprentice, restraining him where he stood.

"If you had any idea what you've just given up…" Snoke trailed off, but it was impossible to miss the venom in his tone. "You're just like the weakling, Anakin Skywalker, and your pathetic uncle. Though you won't live nearly as long as either."

Kylo remained silent, and Rey wondered if he would have been able to speak even if he had wished to. She kept her eyes trained on him, watching his face. His teeth were bared, jaw clenched, body trembling.

 _He's fighting_ , she realized.

Snoke was trying to force him to the ground and Kylo was trying to resist. It felt like the battle went on for an eternity, but finally, with a sound of pain, Kylo went to one knee. The saber was wrenched from his grip, sailing through the air to Snoke's outstretched hand. The towering figure had risen from his chair and was slowly coming closer. She could feel the overpowering malevolence growing near. Even as she thought this, the Force turned her, so she knelt on the ground next to Kylo, and they both faced the approaching figure.

Stopping in front of the pair, Snoke glared down. "There was so much power in you. So much potential. Squandered on sentimentality and compassion." He shook his head. At this point he was clearly trying to decide who would be best to dispose of first. His eyes settled on her, and he raised the saber up high. Rey locked her eyes on it, still unable to move the rest of her body, waiting for the end.

Before the weapon could be brought down on them, a shudder ran through the entirety of the room. Alarms began to blare, and the sound of a distant explosion rumbled around them. Snoke stopped, looking around as though he could see what was amiss. Along the wall, the guards in red straightened, having been knocked off balance by the shaking of the ship.

"What?"

Snoke's question was answered by a second, much louder explosion. This one shook the throne room hard. Cracks appeared across the floor, and the ceiling. In the space of a breath, a massive chunk of metal came crashing down, jagged edges landing far too close for comfort to Rey and Kylo.

Snoke's hold on them weakened as he stumbled back, and Rey reached out, pulling her saber back to herself in the moment of confusion. Snoke's face twisted with anger, and he growled. A third explosion opened a hole in the floor. Snoke was powerful with the Force, but his body was old and broken. The continued quaking of the ground under his feet had him off balance.

A hand wrapped around Rey's upper arm, hauling her to her feet. Glancing up, she saw that Kylo had already risen, and his saber glowed, red and alight in his grip. He looked down at her, searching her face. Rey nodded sharply at him, before they both turned their attention back to the crumbling throne room.

Two of the red guards flanked Snoke, leading him through the wreckage in the room. The others were quickly closing in on the pair of them. Rey spun, feeling Kylo do the same, putting his back to hers.

"Stay close," he said, his voice startlingly calm.

Rey didn't risk a glance back at him. There wasn't time. The first guard reached her, bringing down a pair of short, curved swords. Swinging her saber up to deflect it, Rey was surprised when the weapon caught it, resisting it rather than being sundered in two. She felt, rather than saw, when Kylo moved to meet his own enemies.

He was a flare of swirling energy in the Force, darkness woven thick through light. It was a part of him, and it was achingly hungry for this fight. Like a living entity, the darkness jumped with excitement at the clash of weapons, surging with each powerful, assured movement of Kylo's body.

Rey's focus faltered, falling out of the Force's guiding motions for less than a heartbeat, and Kylo was there, deflecting a blow she had been too busy to notice. As he did, she saw the unguarded spot at his side. A red guard moved in to exploit it. Rey ducked under Kylo's extended arm, intercepting the blow. She twisted the long, bladed staff away, swinging her saber around enough to feel it connect with the shaft of her opponent's weapon. The deadly blade clattered to the floor and Rey kicked it sharply, sending it skittering away.

Kylo was still behind her, but she felt the space between them growing. They were being driven apart. The guard whose weapon she had struck wasn't fast enough getting away. Another blue arc cut through the air, leaving a glowing, red-orange line across his chest. He dropped to the floor.

Something was moving up behind her. Not Kylo. The Force guided her, whispering for her to twist and duck aside. The air stirred as she did, the incoming weapon whisked over her. Something connected with her side, driving the air from her and sending her crashing to the floor. The ground shook beneath her, then opened.

The guard that had kicked her was ready to strike her with his weapon, when he was swallowed up by the metal maw of the dying ship. Rey shrieked, scrabbling for the edge. She dropped her saber, watching it roll away, lodging between two chunks of debris. The floor was smooth, giving her little to catch herself on, though the edge was jagged enough to snatch at her clothes, pulling at her, and jabbing at her belly.

A guard approached the edge, slashing at her hands. Rey's heart pounded, the blood rushing in her ears. She shrieked again, almost falling as she frantically tried to avoid the blow. She still had her arms braced against the edge of the chasm. Calling out to the Force, Rey reached out, knocking the guard's legs out from under him. Then, before he could recover, she pulled, watching him slide over the edge and vanish into the darkness below.

Panting, Rey hauled her upper body up over the edge. Kylo was facing off with his final opponent. There was blood on his face, and she could see his eyes flashing. His teeth were bared in a snarl. The darkness she had sensed in him had only grown over the course of the battle, dwarfing what light had been there before, making Rey's blood run cold.

The final guard swung, knocking Kylo's saber out of his hands, as Rey's had been knocked from hers. Rather than scramble to retrieve it, Kylo followed the momentum of the guard. He brought up a fist, striking the guard on the arm, sending him stumbling off balance. Using that unbalance, Kylo kicked him, letting him crash ungracefully to the ground. The Force moved. The guard's glaive leapt from his grasp, sailing into Kylo's outstretched hand. In one fluid motion, Kylo brought it down hard on the guard's back with a cry of rage. The armor cracked and gave way. The guard was silent.

With one final heave, Rey pulled herself all the way out of the crevice, taking a few precious seconds to breathe heavily. A footfall nearby had her eyes flying open. Her hand reached out, her dropped saber springing eagerly back into her grip, though she was still laying on the ground.

Kylo stood over her, looking down with unreadable eyes, breathing hard. Rey rolled, pushing herself up so she was on one knee. Her lightsaber was deactivated, but she held it cautiously, ready to bring it to life if the fight hadn't died with the final guard.

Kylo blinked. Then, he belted his saber with one hand, reaching down to her with the other. "We need to go." His voice held the same calm as it had before the fight, the exertion betrayed only by the heaving of his chest, and the fire in his eyes.

Nodding in understanding, Rey reached up, clasping his hand in hers.


End file.
